^ofPmcsTo^ 


'^Ot.OQiCM  St>ft^^ 


BR    45     .B35    1899 
Bampton    lectures 


CHRISTIAN    MYSTICISM 


THE    BAMPTON    LECTURES,    1899 


CHRISTIAN    MYSTICISM 

CONSIDERED   IN   EIGHT    LECTURES 
DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   OXFORD 


WILLIAM    RALPH    INGE,   M.A. 

FELLOW    AND   TUTOR   OF    HERTFORD   COLLEGE,    OXFORD  ;    FORMERLY   FF.LLOW   OF    KING'S 
COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE,    AND   ASSISTANT   MASTER   AT   ETON   COLLEGE 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S     SONS 

153,  15s.  AND  157  FIFTH   AVENUE 

LONDON:    METHUEN  &  CO. 


EXTRACT 

FROM   THE    LAST    WILL   AND   TESTAMENT 

OF    THE    LATE 

REV.    JOHN    BAMPTON, 
CANON   OF  SALISBURY. 


"  I  give  and  bequeath  my  Lands  and  Estates  to  the 

Chancellor,  Masters,  and  Scholars  of  the  University  of  Oxford 
for  ever,  to  have  and  to  hold  all  and  singular  the  said  Lands 
and  Estates  upon  trust,  and  to  the  intents  and  purposes  here- 
inafter mentioned  ;  that  is  to  say,  I  will  and  appoint  that  the 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford  for  the  time  being 
shall  take  and  receive  all  the  rents,  issues,  and  profits  thereof, 
and  (after  all  taxes,  reparations,  and  necessary  deductions 
made)  that  he  pay  all  the  remainder  to  the  endowment  of 
eight  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons,  to  be  established  for  ever  in 
the  said  University,  and  to  be  performed  in  the  manner 
following  : 

"  I  direct  and  appoint  that  upon  the  first  Tuesday  in  Easter 
Term,  a  Lecturer  be  yearly  chosen  by  the  Heads  of  Colleges 
only,  and  by  no  others,  in  the  room  adjoining  to  the  Printing- 
House,  between  the  hours  of  ten  in  the  morning  and  two  in 
the  afternoon,  to  preach  eight  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons,  the 
year  following,  at  St.  Mary's  in  Oxford,  between  the  com- 
mencement of  the  last  month  in  Lent  Term,  and  the  end  of 
the  third  week  in  Act  Term. 


VI 


EXTRACT 


"  Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  the  eight  Divinity  Lecture 
Sermons  shall  be  preached  upon  either  of  the  following 
Subjects — to  confirm  and  establish  the  Christian  Faith,  and 
to  confute  all  heretics  and  schismatics  —  upon  the  Divine 
authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures — upon  the  authority  of  the 
writings  of  the  primitive  Fathers,  as  to  the  faith  and  practice 
of  the  primitive  Church — upon  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ — upon  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost — 
upon  the  Articles  of  the  Christian  Faith,  as  comprehended  in 
the  Apostles'  and  Nicene  Creeds. 

"Also  I  direct  that  thirty  copies  of  the  eight  Divinity 
Lecture  Sermons  shall  be  always  printed  within  two  months 
after  they  are  preached  ;  and  one  copy  shall  be  given  to  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  one  copy  to  the  head  of 
every  College,  and  one  copy  to  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Oxford, 
and  one  copy  to  be  put  into  the  Bodleian  Library ;  and  the 
expense  of  printing  them  shall  be  paid  out  of  the  revenue  of 
the  Land  or  Estates  given  for  establishing  the  Divinity  Lecture 
Sermons ;  and  the  Preacher  shall  not  be  paid,  nor  entitled  to 
the  revenue,  before  they  are  printed. 

"  Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  no  person  shall  be  qualified 
to  preach  the  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons,  unless  he  hath  taken 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  at  least,  in  one  of  the  two  Uni- 
versities of  Oxford  or  Cambridge ;  and  that  tlTe  same  person 
shall  never  preach  the  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons  twice." 


PREFACE 

The  first  of  the  subjects  which,  according  to  the  will  of 
Canon  Bampton,  are  prescribed  for  the  Lecturers  upon 
his  foundation,  is  the  confirmation  and  establishment  of 
the  Christian  faith.  This  is  the  aim  which  I  have 
kept  in  view  in  preparing  this  volume ;  and  I  should 
wish  my  book  to  be  judged  as  a  contribution  to  apolo- 
getics, rather  than  as  a  historical  sketch  of  Christian 
Mysticism.  I  say  this'  because  I  decided,  after  some 
hesitation,  to  adopt  a  historical  framework  for  the 
Lectures,  and  this  arrangement  may  cause  my  object 
to  be  misunderstood.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
instructiveness  of  tracing  the  development  and  opera- 
tion of  mystical  ideas,  in  the  forms  which  they  have 
assumed  as  active  forces  in  history,  outweighed  the 
disadvantage  of  appearing  to  waver  between  apology 
and  narrative.  A  series  of  historical  essays  would,  of 
course,  have  been  quite  unsuitable  in  the  University 
pulpit,  and,  moreover,  I  did  not  approach  the  subject 
from  that  side.  Until  I  began  to  prepare  the  Lectures, 
about  a  year  and  a  half  before  they  were  delivered,  my 
study  of  the  mystical  writers  had  been  directed  solely 
by  my  own  intellectual  and  spiritual  needs.  I  was 
attracted  to  them  in  the  hope  of  finding  in  their 
writings   a  philosophy  and   a  rule  of  life  which  would 


viii  PREFACE 

satisfy  my  mind  and  conscience.  In  this  I  was  not 
disappointed ;  and  thinking  that  others  might  perhaps 
profit  by  following  the  same  path,  I  wished  to  put 
together  and  publish  the  results  of  my  thought  and 
reading.  In  such  a  scheme  historical  details  are  either 
out  of  place  or  of  secondary  value ;  and  I  hope  this 
will  be  remembered  by  any  historians  who  may  take 
the  trouble  to  read  my  book. 

The  philosophical  side  of  the  subject  is  from  my 
point  of  view  of  much  greater  importance.  I  have 
done  my  best  to  acquire  an  adequate  knowledge  of 
those  philosophies,  both  ancient  and  modern,  which 
are  most  akin  to  speculative  Mysticism,  and  also  to 
think  out  my  own  position.  I  hope  that  I  have 
succeeded  in  indicating  my  general  standpoint,  and 
that  what  I  have  written  may  prove  fairly  consistent 
and  intelligible ;  but  I  have  felt  keenly  the  disad- 
vantage of  having  missed  the  systematic  training  in 
metaphysics  given  by  the  Oxford  school  of  LitercB 
Huinaniores,  and  also  the  difficulty  (perhaps  I  should 
say  the  presumption)  of  addressing  metaphysical 
arguments  to  an  audience  which  included  several 
eminent  philosophers.  I  wish  also  that  I  had  had 
time  for  a  more  thorough  study  of  Fechner's  works  ; 
for  his  system,  so  far  as  I  understand  it,  seems  to  me 
to  have  a  great  interest  and  value  as  a  scheme  of 
philosophical  Mysticism  which  does  not  clash  with 
modern  science. 

I  have  spoken  with  a  plainness  which  will  probably 
give  offence  of  the  debased  supernaturalism  which 
usurps  the  name  of  Mysticism  in  Roman  Catholic 
countries.       I   desire   to   insult   no   man's   convictions ; 


PREFACE  ix 

and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  decided  not  to 
print  my  analysis  of  Ribet's  work  {^La  Mystique  Divine, 
distinguh  des  Contrefa<^ons  diaboliques.  Nouvelle 
Edition,  Paris,  1895,  3  vols.),  which  I  intended  to 
form  an  Appendix.  It  would  have  opened  the  eyes 
of  some  of  my  readers  to  the  irreconcilable  antagon- 
ism between  the  Roman  Church  and  science ;  but 
though  I  translated  and  summarised  my  author  faith- 
fully, the  result  had  all  the  appearance  of  a  malicious 
travesty.  I  have  therefore  suppressed  this  Appendix  ; 
but  with  regard  to  Roman  Catholic  "  Mysticism " 
there  is  no  use  in  mincing  matters.  Those  who  find 
edification  in  signs  and  wonders  of  this  kind,  and 
think  that  such  "  supernatural  phenomena,"  even  if 
they  were  well  authenticated  instead  of  being  ridiculous 
fables,  could  possibly  establish  spiritual  truths,  will 
find  little  or  nothing  to  please  or  interest  them  in 
these  pages.  But  those  who  reverence  Nature  and 
Reason,  and  have  no  wish  to  hear  of  either  of  them 
being  "  overruled  "  or  "  suspended,"  will,  I  hope,  agree 
with  me  in  valuing  highly  the  later  developments  of 
mystical  thought  in   Northern  Europe. 

There  is  another  class  of  "  mystics  "  with  whom  I 
have  but  little  sympathy — the  dabblers  in  occultism. 
"  Psychical  research  "  is,  no  doubt,  a  perfectly  legitimate 
science ;  but  when  its  professors  invite  us  to  watch  the 
breaking  down  of  the  middle  wall  of  partition  between 
matter  and  spirit,  they  have,  in  my  opinion,  ceased  to 
be  scientific,  and  are  in  reality  hankering  after  the 
beggarly  elements  of  the  later  Neoplatonism. 

The  charge  of  "  pantheistic  tendency "  will  not,  I 
hope,   be  brought  against  me  without   due  considera- 


X  PREFACE 

tion.  I  have  tried  to  show  how  the  Johannine  Logos- 
doctrine,  which  is  the  basis  of  Christian  Mysticism, 
differs  from  Asiatic  Pantheism,  from  Acosmism,  and 
from  (one  kind  of)  evolutionary  IdeaHsm.  Of  course, 
speculative  Mysticism  is  nearer  to  Pantheism  than  to 
Deism  ;  but  I  think  it  is  possible  heartily  to  eschew 
Deism  without  falling  into  the  opposite  error. 

I  have  received  much  help  from  many  kind  friends  ; 
and  though  some  of  them  would  not  wish  to  be  as- 
sociated with  all  of  my  opinions,  I  cannot  deny  myself 
the  pleasure  of  thanking  them  by  name.  From  my 
mother  and  other  members  of  my  family,  and  relations, 
especially  Mr.  W.  W.  How,  Fellow  of  Merton,  I 
have  received  many  useful  suggestions.  Three  past 
or  present  colleagues  have  read  and  criticised  parts  of 
my  work — the  Rev.  H.  Rashdall,  now  Fellow  of  New 
College ;  Mr.  H.  A.  Prichard,  now  Fellow  of  Trinity ; 
and  Mr.  H.  H.  Williams,  Fellow  of  Hertford.  Mr. 
G.  L.  Dickinson,  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge, 
lent  me  an  unpublished  dissertation  on  Plotinus.  The 
Rev.  C.  Bigg,  D.D.,  whose  Bampton  Lectures  on  the 
Christian  Platonists  are  known  all  over  Europe,  did  me 
the  kindness  to  read  the  whole  of  the  eight  Lectures, 
and  so  added  to  the  great  debt  which  I  owe  to  him 
for  his  books.  The  Rev.  J.  M.  Heald,  formerly 
Scholar  of  Trinity,  Cambridge,  lent  me  many  books 
from  his  fine  library,  and  by  inquiring  for  me  at 
Louvain  enabled  me  to  procure  the  books  on  Mysti- 
cism which  are  now  studied  in  Roman  Catholic 
Universities.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Lindsay,  who  has  made 
a  special  study  of  the  German  mystics,  read  my 
Lectures  on  that  period,  and  wrote  me  a  very  useful 


PREFACE  xi 

letter  upon  them.  Miss  G.  H.  Warrack  of  Edinburgh 
kindly  allowed  me  to  use  her  modernised  version  of 
Julian  of  Norwich. 

I  have  ventured  to  say  in  my  last  Lecture — and  it  is 
my  earnest  conviction — that  a  more  general  acquaint- 
ance with  mystical  theology  and  philosophy  is  very 
desirable  in  the  interests  of  the  English  Church  at  the 
present  time.  I  am  not  one?  of  those  who  think  that 
the  points  at  issue  between  Anglo-Catholics  and  Anglo- 
Protestants  are  trivial :  history  has  always  confirmed 
Aristotle's  famous  dictum  about  parties — ^'uyvoviaL  al 
(7rda€c<;  ov  irepl  fxcKpwv  aW  e'/c  fXLKpwv,  cnaaid^ovat  he 
Trepl  /u,eyaXo3v — but  I  do  not  so  far  despair  of  our 
Church,  or  of  Christianity,  as  to  doubt  that  a  recon- 
ciling principle  must  and  will  be  found.  Those  who 
do  me  the  honour  to  read  these  Lectures  will  see 
to  what  quarter  I  look  for  a  mediator,  A  very  short 
study  would  be  sufficient  to  dispel  some  of  the  pre- 
judices which  still  hang  round  the  name  of  Mysticism 
— e.g:,  that  its  professors  are  unpractical  dreamers,  and 
that  this  type  of  religion  is  antagonistic  to  the  English 
mind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  great  mystics  have 
been  energetic  and  influential,  and  their  business  capa- 
city is  specially  noted  in  a  curiously  large  number  of 
cases.  For  instance,  Plotinus  was  often  in  request  as 
a  guardian  and  trustee ;  St.  Bernard  showed  great 
gifts  as  an  organiser ;  St.  Teresa,  as  a  founder  of 
convents  and  administrator,  gave  evidence  of  extra- 
ordinary practical  ability;  even  St.  Juan  of  the  Cross - 
displayed  the  same  qualities  ;  John  Smith  was  an  excel- 
lent bursar  of  his  college  ;  Fenelon  ruled  his  diocese 
extremely  well ;  and   Madame   Guyon   surprised  those 


xii  PREFACE 

who  had  deahngs  with  her  by  her  great  aptitude  for 
affairs.  Henry  More  was  offered  posts  of  high  re- 
sponsibiHty  and  dignity,  but  declined  them.  The 
mystic  is  not  as  a  rule  ambitious,  but  I  do  not  think 
he  often  shows  incapacity  for  practical  life,  if  he  con- 
sents to  mingle  in  it.  And  so  far  is  it  from  being 
true  that  Great  Britain  has  produced  but  few  mystics, 
that  I  am  inclined  to  think  the  subject  might  be  ade- 
quately studied  from  English  writers  alone.  On  the 
more  intellectual  side  we  have  (without  going  back  to 
Scotus  Erigena)  the  Cambridge  Platonists,  Law  and 
Coleridge ;  of  devotional  mystics  we  have  attractive 
examples  in  Hilton  and  Julian  of  Norwich  ;  while  in 
verse  the  lofty  idealism  ^  and  strong  religious  bent  of 
our  race  have  produced  a  series  of  poet-mystics  such  as 
no  other  country  can  rival.  It  has  not  been  possible 
in  these  Lectures  to  do  justice  to  George  Herbert, 
Vaughan  "  the  Silurist,"  Quarles,  Crashaw,  and  others, 
who  have  all  drunk  of  the  same  well.  Let  it  suffice  to 
say  that  the  student  who  desires  to  master  the  history 
of  Mysticism  in  Britain  will  find  plenty  to  occupy  his 
time.  But  for  the  religious  public  in  general  the  most 
useful  thing  would  be  a  judicious  selection  from  the 
mystical  writers  of  different  times  and  countries.  Those 
who  are  more  interested  in  the  practical  and  devo- 
tional than  the  speculative  side  may  study  with  great 

'  It  is  really  time  that  we  took  to  burning  that  travesty  of  the  British 
character — the  John  Bull  whom  our  comic  papers  represent  "  guarding  his 
pudding" — instead  of  Guy  Fawkes.  Even  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
amid  all  the  sordid  materialism  bred  of  commercial  ascendancy,  this 
country  has  produced  a  richer  crop  of  imaginative  literature  than  any 
other  ;  and  it  is  significant  that,  while  in  Germany  philosophy  is  falling 
more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  empirical  school,  our  own  thinkers 
are  nearly  all  staunch  idealists. 


PREFACE  xiii 

profit  some  parts  of  St.  Augustine,  the  sermons  of 
Tauler,  the  TJieologia  Genna?iica,  Hilton's  Sca/e  of 
Perfection,  the  Life  of  Henry  Suso,  St.  Francis  de 
Sales  and  Fenelon,  the  Sermons  of  John  Smith  and 
Whichcote's  ApJiorisnis,  and  the  later  works  of  William 
Law,  not  forgetting  the  poets  who  have  been  men- 
tioned. I  can  think  of  no  course  of  study  more  fitting 
for  those  who  wish  to  revive  in  themselves  and  others 
the  practical  idealism  of  the  primitive  Church,  which 
gained  for  it  its  greatest  triumphs. 

I  conclude  this  Preface  with  a  quotation  from 
William  Law  on  the  value  of  the  mystical  writers. 
"  Writers  like  those  I  have  mentioned,"  he  says  in  a 
letter  to  Dr.  Trapp,  "  there  have  been  in  all  ages  of 
the  Church,  but  as  they  served  not  the  ends  of  popular 
learning,  as  they  helped  no  people  to  figure  or  pre- 
ferment in  the  world,  and  were  useless  to  scholastic 
controversial  writers,  so  they  dropt  "^out  of  public  uses, 
and  were  only  known,  or  rather  unknown,  under  the 
name  of  mystical  writers,  till  at  last  some  people  have 
hardly  heard  of  that  very  name :  though,  if  a  man 
were  to  be  told  what  is  meant  by  a  mystical  divine, 
he  must  be  told  of  something  as  heavenly,  as  great,  as 
desirable,  as  if  he  was  told  what  is  meant  by  a  real, 
regenerate,  living  member  of  the  mystical  body  of 
Christ ;  for  they  were  thus  called  for  no  other  reason 
than  as  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  the  saints  of 
the  Old  Testament,  may  be  called  the  spiritual  Israel, 
or  the  true  mystical  Jews.  These  writers  began  their- 
office  of  teaching  as  John  the  Baptist  did,  after  they 
had  passed  through  every  kind  of  mortification  and 
self-denial,  every  kind  of  trial  and  purification,  both 


xiv  PREFACE 

inward  and  outward.  They  were  deeply  learned  in 
the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  not  through  the 
use  of  lexicons,  or  meditating  upon  critics,  but  because 
they  had  passed  from  death  unto  life.  They  highly 
reverence  and  excellently  direct  the  true  use  of  every- 
thing that  is  outward  in  religion  ;  but,  like  the  Psalmist's 
king's  daughter,  they  are  all  glorious  within.  They 
are  truly  sons  of  thunder,  and  sons  of  consolation  ; 
they  break  open  the  whited  sepulchres ;  they  awaken 
the  heart,  and  show  it  its  filth  and  rottenness  of  death : 
but  they  leave  it  not  till  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
raised  up  within  it.  If  a  man  has  no  desire  but  to  be 
of  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  to  obtain  all  that  renova- 
tion of  life  and  spirit  which  alone  can  make  him  to  be 
in  Christ  a  new  creature,  it  is  a  great  unhappiness  to 
him  to  be  unacquainted  with  these  writers,  or  to  pass 
a  day  without  reading  something  of  what  they  wrote." 


CONTENTS 

LF.CTURtt  PACK 

I.   General  Characteristics  of  Mysticism     .....  3 

II.  The  Mystical  Element  in  the  Bible       .....  39 

III.  Christian  Platonism  and  Speculative  Mysticism — (i)  In  the 

East 77 

IV.  Christian  Platonism  and  Speculative  Mysticism — (2)  In  the 

West 125 

V.   Practical  and  Devotional  Mysticism      .         .         .         .         .167 

VI.   Practical  and  Devotional  Mysticism — continued    .         .         .  213 

VII.  Nature- Mysticism  and  Symbolism          .....  249 

VIII.  Nature-Mysticism — continued       ......  299 


Appendix  A,  Definitions     of     "  Mysticism  "     and      "  Mystical 

Theology" 335 

Appendix  B.  The  Greek  Mysteries  and  Christian  Mysticism           .  349 

Appendix  C.  The  Doctrine  of  Deification     .....  356 

Appendix  D.  The  Mystical  Interpretation  of  the  Song  of  Solomon  369 

Index 373 


LECTURE    I 


"'H.iJ.'ti>  Sk  diroSeiKT^ov  ws  ^tt'  evrvxlq^  rji  /xeylffrji  Tapa  OeQp  ii  toio.'utt) 
fiavla  SWoraf  rj  8^  dij  awdSei^ts  iarai  beivdls  fi^v  dTncrros,  (XOKpoh  di 
■^^"■^■n"  Plato,  Phadrus,  p.  245. 

"  Thoas.     Es  spricht  kein  Gott ;  es  spricht  dein  eignes  Herz. 
Iphigenia.     Sie  reden  nur  durch  unser  Herz  zu  uns." 

Goethe,  Iphigenie. 

"Si  notre  vie  est  moins  qu'une  journ^e 
En  r^ternel;  si  I'an  qui  fait  le  tour 
Chasse  nos  jours  sans  espoir  de  retour; 
Si  p^rissable  est  toute  chose  nt^e; 
Que  songes-tu,  mon  ^me  emprisonnt^e  ? 
Pourquoi  te  plait  I'obscur  de  notre  jour, 
Si,  pour  voler  en  un  plus  clair  s^jour, 
Tu  as  au  dos  I'aile  bien  empenn^e  ! 
L4  est  le  bien  que  tout  esprit  d«^sire, 
Li,  le  repos  ou  tout  le  monde  aspire, 
Li  est  I'amour,  la  le  plaisir  encore  ! 
Li,  6  mon  ame,  au  plus  haut  ciel  guid^e, 
Tu  y  pourras  reconnaitre  I'id^e 
De  la  beautt^  qu'en  ce  monde  j'adore  ! " 

Old  Poet. 


CHRISTIAN    MYSTICISM 

LECTURE    I 

General  Characteristics  of  Mysticism 

"  Beloved,  now  are  we  children  of  God,  and  it  is  not  yet  made  manifest 
what  we  shall  be.  We  know  that,  if  He  shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be 
like  Him ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  even  as  He  is." — i  John  iii.  2,  3. 

No  word  in  our  language — not  even  "  Socialism  " — 
has  been  employed  more  loosely  than  "  Mysticism." 
Sometimes  it  is  used  as  an  equivalent  for  symbolism  or 
allegorism,  sometimes  for  theosophy  or  occult  science ; 
and  sometimes  it  merely  suggests  the  mental  state  of 
a  dreamer,  or  vague  and  fantastic  opinions  about  God 
and  the  world.  In  Roman  Catholic  writers,  "  mystical 
phenomena"  mean  supernatural  suspensions  of  phys- 
ical law.  Even  those  writers  who  have  made  a  special 
study  of  the  subject,  show  by  their  definitions  of  the 
word  how  uncertain  is  its  connotation.^  It  is  therefore 
necessary  that  I  should  make  clear  at  the  outset  what  I 
understand  by  the  term,  and  what  aspects  of  religious 
life  and  thought  I  intend  to  deal  with  in  these 
Lectures. 

The  history  of  the  word  begins  in  close  connexion 

^  See  Appendix  A  for  definitions  of  Mysticism  and  Mystical  Thea- 
logy. 

3 


4  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

with  the  Greek  mysteries.^  A  mystic  (/aucttt?'?)  is  one 
who  has  been,  or  is  being,  initiated  into  some  esoteric 
knowledge  of  Divine  things,  about  which  he  must  keep 
his  mouth  shut  (ixveiv)  ;  or,  possibly,  he  is  one  whose 
eyes  are  still  shut,  one  who  is  not  yet  an  eVoTTT?;?.'-^  The 
word  was  taken  over,  with  other  technical  terms  of 
the  mysteries,  by  the  Neoplatonists,  who  found  in  the 
existing  mysteriosophy  a  discipline,  worship,  and  rule 
of  life  congenial  to  their  speculative  views.  But  as  the 
tendency  towards  quietism  and  introspection  increased 
among  them,  another  derivation  for  "  Mysticism  "  was 
found — it  was  explained  to  mean  deliberately  shutting 
the  eyes  to  all  external  things.^  We  shall  see  in  the 
sequel  how  this  later  Neoplatonism  passed  almost  entire 
into  Christianity,  and,  while  forming  the  basis  of 
mediaeval  Mysticism,  caused  a  false  association  to  cling 
to  the  word  even  down  to  the  Reformation.'* 

The    phase    of   thought    or    feeling   which   we   call 

1  See  Appendix  B  for  a  discussion  of  the  influence  of  the  Greek  mysteries 
upon  Christian  Mysticism. 

'  Tholuck  accepts  the  former  derivation  (cf.  Suidas,  /xva-r-^pia  sKX-qd-qaav 
irapa  rb  tovs  a.KoiovTO.'i  fiveip  rb  (TTd/xa  Kal  fiyjdivi  ravra  i^yjyeladai)  ; 
Petersen,  the  latter.  There  is  no  doubt  that  fivrja-is  was  opposed  to 
iiroTrrda,  and  in  this  sense  denoted  incomplete  initiation  ;  but  it  was  also 
made  to  include  the  whole  process.  The  prevailing  use  of  the  adjective 
/ai;(rrifc6s  is  of  something  seen  "through  a  glass  darkly,"  some  knowledge 
purposely  wrapped  up  in  symbols. 

^  So  Hesychius  says,  Miycrrat,  airb  fj.6(j},  fivovres  yap  ras  ala-drjaeis  Kal  ^^w 
tQv  aapKiKLOv  (ppovrlSuiv  yeu6fjLevoL,  ouru)  rds  Oeias  dva\dfM\peis  edexovro. 
Plotinus  and  Proclus  both  use  /mvu  of  the  "closed  eye"  of  rapt  con- 
templation. 

■•  I  cannot  agree  with  Lasson  (in  his  book  on  Meister  Eckhart)  that  "the 
connexion  with  the  Greek  mysteries  throws  no  light  on  the  subject."  No 
writer  had  more  influence  upon  the  growth  of  Mysticism  in  the  Church 
than  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  whose  main  object  is  to  present  Chris- 
tianity in  the  light  of  a  Platonic  mysteriosophy.  The  same  purpose  is 
evident  in  Clement,  and  in  other  Christian  Platonists  between  Clement  and 
Dionysius.     See  Appendix  B. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM        5 

Mysticism    has    its    origin    in    that   which    is   the    raw 
material  of  all  religion,  and  perhaps  of  all  philosophy 
and  art  as  well,  namely,  that  dim  consciousness  of  the 
beyond,  which   is   part  of  our  nature  as  human  beings. 
Men  have  given  different  names  to  these  "  obstinate  ques- 
tionings of  sense  and  outward  things."  We  may  call  them, 
if  we  will,  a  sort  of  higher  instinct,  perhaps  an  anticipa- 
tion  of  the   evolutionary  process ;  or  an  extension  of 
the  frontier  of  consciousness ;  or,  in  religious  language, 
the  voice   of  God  speaking  to  us.      Mysticism   arises 
when  we   try  to  bring  this   higher  consciousness  into 
relation  with  the  other  contents  of  our  minds.    Religious 
Mysticism  may  be  defined  as  the  attempt  to  realise  the 
presence  of  the  living  God  in  the  soul   and  in  nature, 
or,  more  generally,  as  the  attempt  to  realise,  in  thought 
and  feeling,  the  immanence  of  the  temporal  in  the  eternal, 
and  of  the  eternal  in  the  temporal.     Our  consciousness 
of  the  beyond  is,  I  say,  the  raw  material  of  all  religion. 
But,  being  itself  formless,  it  cannot  be  brought  directly 
into  relation  with  the  forms  of  our  thought.  Accordingly, 
it  has  to  express  itself  by  symbols,  which  are  as  it  were 
the  flesh  and  bones  of  ideas.      It  is  the  tendency  of  all 
symbols  to  petrify  or  evaporate,  and  either  process  is 
fatal    to  them.       They   soon   repudiate  their   mystical 
origin,  and  forthwith  lose  their  religious  content.    Then 
comes  a  return  to  the  fresh  springs  of  the  inner  life — 
a  revival  of  spirituality  in  the  midst  of  formalism  or 
unbelief.     This  is  the  historical  function   of  Mysticism 
— it   appears  as  an   independent  active   principle,  the 
spirit  of  reformations  and  revivals.      But   since   every 
active  principle  must  find  for  itself  appropriate  instru- 
ments,   Mysticism    has    developed    a    speculative    and 


6  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

practical  system  of  its  own.  As  Goethe  says,  it  is 
"  the  scholastic  of  the  heart,  the  dialectic  of  the 
feelings."  In  this  way  it  becomes  possible  to  con- 
sider it  as  a  type  of  religion,  though  it  must  always 
be  remembered  that  in  becoming  such  it  has  incorpor- 
ated elements  which  do  not  belong  to  its  inmost  being.^ 
As  a  type  of  religion,  then.  Mysticism  seems  to  rest  on 
the  following  propositions  or  articles  of  faith  : — 

First,  the  soul  (as  well  as  the  body)  ca7i  see  and 
perceive — eVrt  8e  '^v-^]<^  aia6t](jl^  re?,  as  Proclus  says. 
We  have  an  organ  or  faculty  for  the  discernment  of 
spiritual  truth,  which,  in  its  proper  sphere,  is  as  much 
to  be  trusted  as  the  organs  of  sensation  in  theirs. 

The  second  proposition  is  that,  since  we  can  only 
know  what  is  akin  to  ourselves,^  inan,  in  order  to  know 
God,  must  be  a  partaker  of  the  Divine  nature.     "  What 

^  It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  every  historical  example  of  a 
mystical  movement  may  be  expected  to  exhibit  characteristics  which  are 
determined  by  the  particular  forms  of  religious  deadness  in  opposition 
to  which  it  arises.  I  think  that  it  is  generally  easy  to  separate  these 
secondary,  accidental  chaiacteristics  from  those  which  are  primary  and 
integral,  and  that  we  shall  then  find  that  the  underlying  substance,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  essence  of  Mysticism  as  a  type  of  religion,  is 
strikingly  uniform. 

"  The  analogy  used  by  Plotinus  [Ennead  i.  6.  9)  was  often  quoted  and 
imitated  :  "  Even  as  the  eye  could  not  behold  the  sun  unless  it  were  itself 
sunlike,  so  neither  could  the  soul  behold  God  if  it  were  not  Godlike." 
Lotze  (Microcosmus,  and  cf.  Metaphysics,  ist  ed.,  p.  109)  falls  foul  of 
Plotinus  for  this  argument.  "  The  reality  of  the  external  world  is  utterly 
severed  from  our  senses.  It  is  vain  to  call  the  eye  sunlike,  as  if  it  needed 
a  special  occult  power  to  copy  what  it  has  itself  produced  :  fruitless  are  all 
mystic  efforts  to  restore  to  the  intuitions  of  sense,  by  means  of  a  secret 
identity  of  mind  with  things,  a  reality  outside  ourselves."  Whether  the 
subjective  idealism  of  this  sentence  is  consistent  with  the  subsequent 
dogmatic  assertion  that  "nature  is  animated  throughout,"  it  is  not  my 
province  to  determine.  The  latter  doctrine  is  held  by  a  large  school  of 
mystics :  the  acosmistic  tendency  of  the  former  has  had  only  too  much 
attraction  for  mystics  of  another  school. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM        7 

we  are,  that  we  behold  ;  and  what  we  behold,  that  we 
are,"  says  Ruysbroek,  The  curious  doctrine  which  we 
find  in  the  mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  there  is  at 
"  the  apex  of  the  mind "  a  spark  which  is  consub- 
stantial  with  the  uncreated  ground  of  the  Deity,  is  thus 
accounted  for.  We  could  not  even  begin  to  work  out 
our  own  salvation  if  God  were  not  already  working  in 
us^  It  is  always  "  in  His  light "  that  "  we  see  light." 
The  doctrine  has  been  felt  to  be  a  necessary  postulate 
by  most  philosophers  who  hold  that  knowledge  of  God 
is  possible  to  man.  For  instance,  Krause  says,  "  From 
finite  reason  as  finite  we  might  possibly  explain  the 
thought  of  itself,  but  not  the  thought  of  something  that 
is  outside  finite  reasonable  beings,  far  less  the  absolute 
idea,  in  its  contents  infinite,  of  God.  To  become  aware 
of  God  in  knowledge  we  require  certainly  to  make  a 
freer  use  of  our  finite  power  of  thought,  but  the 
thought  of  God  itself  is  primarily  and  essentially  an 
eternal  operation  of  the  eternal  revelation  of  God  to  the 
finite  mind."  But  though  we  are  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  our  likeness  to  Him  only  exists  potentially.^  The 
Divine  spark  already  shines  within  us,  but  it  has  to  be 
searched  for  in  the  innermost  depths  of  our  personality, 
and  its  light  diffused  over  our  whole  being. 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  proposition — "  Without 
holiness  no  man  may  see  the  Lord"  ;  or,  as  it  is  ex- 
pressed positively  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart :  for  they  shall  see  God." 
Sensuality  and  selfishness  are  absolute  disqualifications 
for  knowing  "  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God." 

^  This  distinction  is  drawn  by  Origen,  and  accepted  by  all  the  mystical 
writers. 


8  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

These  fundamental  doctrines  are  very  clearly  laid 
down  in  the  passage  from  St.  John  which  I  read  as 
the  text  of  this  Lecture.  The  filial  relation  to  God  is 
already  claimed,  but  the  vision  is  inseparable  from 
likeness  to  Him,  which  is  a  hope,  not  a  possession,  and 
is  only  to  be  won  by  "  purifying  ourselves,  even  as  He 
is  pure." 

There  is  one  more  fundamental  doctrine  which  we 
must  not  omit.  Purification  removes  the  obstacles  to 
our  union  with  God,  but  our  guide  on  the  upward  path, 
the  true  hierophant  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  is  love}  Love 
has  been  defined  as  "  interest  in  its  highest  power  "  ;  ^ 
while  others  have  said  that  "  it  is  of  the  essence  of  love 
to  be  disinterested."  The  contradiction  is  merely  a  verbal 
one.  The  two  definitions  mark  different  starting-points, 
but  the  two  "  ways  of  love  "  should  bring  us  to  the 
same  goal.  The  possibility  of  disinterested  love,  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  ought  never  to  have  been  called  in 
question.  "  Love  is  not  love "  M'hen  it  asks  for  a 
reward.  Nor  is  the  love  of  man  to  God  any  exception. 
He  who  tries  to  be  holy  in  order  to  be  happy  will 
assuredly  be  neither.  In  the  words  of  the  Theologia 
Germanica,  "  So  long  as  a  man  seeketh  his  own  highest 
good   because   it    is    his,  he   will    never   find    it."      The 

^  Faith  goes  so  closely  hand  in  hand  with  love  that  the  mystics  seldom 
try  to  separate  them,  and  indeed  they  need  not  be  separated.  William 
Law's  account  of  their  operation  is  characteristic.  "When  the  seed  of  the 
new  birth,  called  the  inward  man,  has  faith  awakened  in  it,  its  faith  is  not 
a  notion,  but  a  real  strong  essential  hunger,  an  attracting  or  magnetic 
desire  of  Christ,  which  as  it  proceeds  from  a  seed  of  the  Divine  nature  in 
us,  so  it  attracts  and  unites  with  its  like :  it  lays  hold  on  Christ,  puts  on 
the  Divine  nature,  and  in  a  living  and  real  manner  grows  powerful  over 
all  our  sins,  and  effectually  works  out  our  salvation"  {Grounds  and 
Reasons  of  Christian  Regeneration). 

^  R.  L.  Nettleship,  Remains. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM        9 

mystics  here  are  unanimous,  though  some,  like  St. 
Bernard,  doubt  whether  perfect  love  of  God  can  ever 
be  attained,  pure  and  without  alloy,  while  we  are  in 
this  life.^  The  controversy  between  Fenelon  and 
Bossuet  on  this  subject  is  well  known,  and  few  will 
deny  that  Fenelon  was  mainly  in  the  right.  Certainly 
he  had  an  easy  task  in  justifying  his  statements  from 
the  writings  of  the  saints.  But  we  need  not  trouble 
ourselves  with  the  "  mystic  paradox,"  that  it  would  be 
better  to  be  with  Christ  in  hell  than  without  Him  in 
heaven — a  statement  which  Thomas  a  Kempis  once 
wrote  and  then  erased  in  his  manuscript.  For  wherever 
Christ  is,  there  is  heaven  :  nor  should  we  regard  eternal 
happiness  as  anything  distinct  from  "  a  true  conjunc- 
tion of  the  mind  with  God."  ^  "  God  is  not  without  or 
above  law :  He  could  not  make  men  either  sinful  or 
miserable."  ^  To  believe  otherwise  is  to  suppose  an 
irrational  universe,  the  one  thing  which  a  rational  man 
cannot  believe  in. 

The  mystic,  as  we  have  seen,  makes  it  his  life's  aim 
to  be  transformed  into  the  likeness  of  Him  in  whose 
image  he  was  created.*  He  loves  to  figure  his  path 
as  a  ladder  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,  which  must 
be  climbed  step  by  step.  This  scala  perfectionis  is 
generally  divided  into  three  stages.      The  first  is  called 

^  "Nescio  si  a  quoquam  homine  quartus  (gradus)  in  hac  vita  perfecte 
apprehenditur,  ut  se  scilicet  diligat  homo  tantum  propter  Deum.  Asserant 
hoc  si  qui  experti  sunt:  mihi  (fateor)  impossibile  videtur "  {De  diligendo 
Deo,  XV.;  Epist.  xi.  8). 

"^  From  a  sermon  by  Smith,  the  Cambridge  Platonist.  Plotinus,  too, 
says  well,  ef  rts  dXXo  eZSos  rjdovTJs  irepi  tov  crTrovdaTov  ^Lov  ^tjtu,  ov  rbv 
airovhcuov  ^lov  ^TjTet  {En?iead  \.  4.  12). 

"*  From  Smith's  sermons.  , 

*  Pindar's  yipoio  olos  iaai  /xaOuif  is  a  fine  mystical  maxim.    [Pyth.  2.  131-) 


lo  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

the  purgative  life,  the  second  the  illuminative,  while 
the  third,  which  is  really  the  goal  rather  than  a  part 
of  the  journey,  is  called  the  unitive  life,  or  state  of 
perfect  contemplation.^  We  find,  as  we  should  expect, 
some  differences  in  the  classification,  but  this  tripartite 
scheme  is  generally  accepted. 

The  steps  of  the  upward  path  constitute  the  ethical 
system,  the  rule  of  life,  of  the  mystics.  The  first  stage, 
the  purgative  life,  we  read  in  the  Theologia  Gennanica, 
is  brought  about  by  contrition,  by  confession,  by  hearty 
amendment ;  and  this  is  the  usual  language  in  treatises 
intended  for  monks.  But  it  is  really  intended  to 
include  the  civic  and  social  virtues  in  this  stage.^ 
They  occupy  the  lowest  place,  it  is  true ;  but  this  only 
means  that  they  must  be  acquired  by  all,  though  all 
are  not  called  to  the  higher  flights  of  contemplation. 
Their  chief  value,  according  to  Plotinus,  is  to  teach  us 
the  meaning  of  oj'dej'-  and  limitation  (rd^L'i  and  iripa'i), 
which  are  qualities  belonging  to  the  Divine  nature. 
This  is  a  very  valuable  thought,  for  it  contradicts  that 
aberration  of  Mysticism  which  calls  God  the  Infinite, 
and  thinks  of  Him  as  the  Indefinite,  dissolving  all 
distinctions  in  the  abyss  of  bare  indetermination. 
When   Ewald  says,  "  the  true  mystic  never  withdraws 

^  Strictly,  the  unitive  road  {via)  leads  to  the  contemplative  life  (vita). 
Cf.  Benedict,  xiv.,  De  Servoruin  Dei  beaiijic.,  iii.  26,  "  Perfecta  hsec 
mystica  unio  reperitur  regulariter  in  perfecto  contemplativo  qui  in  vita 
purgativa  et  illuniinativa,  id  est  meditativa,  et  contemplativa  diu  versatus, 
ex  speciali  Dei  favore  ad  infusam  contemplativam  evectus  est."  On  the 
three  ways,  Suarez  says,  "  Distinguere  solent  mystici  tres  vias,  purgativam, 
illuminativani,  et  unitivam."  Molinos  was  quite  a  heterodox  mystic  in 
teaching  that  there  is  but  a  "unica  via,  scilicet  interna,"  and  this  pro- 
position was  condemned  by  a  Bull  of  Innocent  XI. 

-  In  Plotinus  the  civic  virtues  precede  the  cathartic  ;  but  they  are  not,  as 
with  some  perverse  mystics,  considered  to  lie  outside  the  path  of  ascent. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      1 1 

himself  wilfully  from  the  business  of  life,  no,  not  even 
from  the  smallest  business,"  he  is,  at  any  rate,  saying 
nothing  which  conflicts  with  the  principles  of  Mysticism.^ 
The  purgative  life  necessarily  includes  self-discipline  : 
does  it  necessarily  include  what  is  commonly  known 
as  asceticism  ?  It  would  be  easy  to  answer  that 
asceticism  means  nothing  but  ti'aining,  as  men  train 
for  a  race,  or  more  broadly  still,  that  it  means  simply 
"  the  acquisition  of  some  greater  power  by  practice."  ^ 
But  when  people  speak  of  "  asceticism,"  they  have  in 
their  minds  such  severe  "  buffeting "  of  the  body  as 
was  practised  by  many  ancient  hermits  and  mediaeval 
monks.  Is  this  an  integral  part  of  the  mystic's 
"  upward  path "  ?  We  shall  find  reason  to  conclude 
that,  while  a  certain  degree  of  austere  simplicity 
characterises  the  outward  life  of  nearly  all  the  mystics, 
and  while  an  almost  morbid  desire  to  suffer  is  found 
in  many  of  them,  there  is  nothing  in  the  system  itself 
to  encourage  men  to  maltreat  their  bodies.  Mysticism 
enjoins  a  dying  life,  not  a  living  death.  Moreover, 
asceticism,  when  regarded  as  a  virtue  or  duty  in  itself, 
tends  to  isolate  us,  and  concentrates  our  attention  on 
our  separate  individuality.  This  is  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  Mysticism,  which  aims  at  realising  unity  and 
solidarity  everywhere.  Monkish  asceticism  (so  far  as 
it  goes   beyond   the  struggle  to  live   unstained   under 


^  Tauler  is  careful  to  put  social  service  on  its  true  basis.  "One  can 
spin,'^he  says,  "another  can  make  shoes;  and  all  these  are  gifts  of  the 
Holy;Ghost.  I  tell  you,  if  I  were  not  a  priest,  I  should  esteem  it  a  great 
gift  that  I  was  able  to  make  shoes,  and  would  try  to  make  them  so  well 
as  to  be  a  pattern  to  all."  In  a  later  Lecture  I  shall  revert  to  the  charge 
of  indolent  neglect  of  duties,  so  often  preferred  against  the  mystics. 

^  R.  L.  Nettleship,  Remains, 


12  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

unnatural  conditions)  rests  on  a  dualistic  view  of  the 
world  which  does  not  belong  to  the  essence  of  Mysticism. 
It  infected  all  the  religious  life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  not 
Mysticism  only.^ 

The  second  stage,  the  illuminative  life,  is  the  con- 
centration of  all  the  faculties,  will,  intellect,  and  feeling, 
upon  God.  It  differs  from  the  purgative  life,  not  in 
having  discarded  good  works,  but  in  having  come  to 
perform  them,  as  Fenelon  says,  "  no  longer  as  virtues," 
that  is  to  say,  willingly  and  almost  spontaneously.  The 
struggle  is  now  transferred  to  the  inner  life. 

The  last  stage  of  the  journey,  in  which  the  soul 
presses  towards  the  mark,  and  gains  the  prize  of  its 
high  calling,  is  the  unitive  or  contemplative  life,  in 
which  man  beholds  God  face  to  face,  and  is  joined  to 
Him.  Complete  union  with  God  is  the  ideal  limit  of 
religion,  the  attainment  of  which  would  be  at  once  its 
consummation  and  annihilation.  It  is  in  the  continual 
but  unending  approximation  to  it  that  the  life  of 
religion  subsists.^  We  must  therefore  beware  of  re- 
garding the  union  as  anything  more  than  an  infinite 
process,  though,  as  its  end  is  part  of  the  eternal 
counsel  of  God,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  it  is  already 
a  fact,  and  not  merely  a  thing  desired.      But  the  word 

^  In  a  Roman  Catholic  manual  I  find:  "  Non  raro  sub  nomine 
theologire  mysticse  intelligitur  etiam  ascesis,  sed  immerito.  Nam  ascesis 
consuetas  tantum  et  tritas  perfectionis  semitas  ostendit,  mystica  autem 
adhuc  excellentiorem  viam  demonstrat."  This  is  to  identify  "mystical 
theology  "  with  the  higher  rungs  of  the  ladder.  It  has  been  used  in  this 
curious  manner  from  the  Middle  Ages.  Ribet  says,  "  La  mystique, 
comme  science  speciale,  fait  partie  de  la  theologie  ascetique";  that  part, 
namely,  "dans  lequel  I'homme  est  reduit  a  la  passivite  par  Taction 
souveraine  de  Dieu."  "L'ascese"  is  defined  as  "I'ascension  de  I'ame 
vers  Dieu." 

-  Cf.  Professor  W.  Wallace's  collected  Lectures  and  Essays,  p.  276. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      13 

deification  holds  a  very  large  place  in  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers,  and  not  only  among  those  who  have  been 
called  mystics.  We  find  it  in  Irenaeus  as  well  as  in 
Clement,  in  Athanasius  as  well  as  in  Gregory  of  Nyssa. 
St.  Augustine  is  no  more  afraid  of  "  deificari  "  in  Latin 
than  Origen  of  deoTroieladat  in  Greek.  The  subject  is 
one  of  primary  importance  to  anyone  who  wishes  to 
understand  mystical  theology ;  but  it  is  difficult  for  us 
to  enter  into  the  minds  of  the  ancients  who  used  these 
expressions,  both  because  0e6<;  was  a  very  fluid  concept 
in  the  early  centuries,  and  because  our  notions  of 
personality  are  very  different  from  those  which  were 
prevalent  in  antiquity.  On  this  latter  point  I  shall 
have  more  to  say  presently ;  but  the  evidence  for  the 
belief  in  "  deification,"  and  its  continuance  through  the 
Middle  Ages,  is  too  voluminous  to  be  given  in  the 
body  of  these  Lectures.^  Let  it  suffice  to  say  here 
that  though  such  bold  phrases  as  "  God  became  man, 
that  we  might  become  God,"  were  commonplaces  of 
doctrinal  theology  at  least  till  after  Augustine,  even 
Clement  and  Origen  protest  strongly  against  the 
"  very  impious "  heresy  that  man  is  "  a  part  of  God," 
or  "  consubstantial  with  God."  ^  The  attribute  of 
Divinity  which  was  chiefly  in  the  minds  of  the  Greek 
Fathers  when  they  made  these  statements,  was  that  of 
imperishableness. 

As  to  the  means  by  which  this  union  is  manifested 
to  the  consciousness,  there  is  no  doubt  that  very  many 

^  See  Appendix  C  on  the  Doctrine  of  Deification. 

-  So  Fenelon,  after  asserting  the  truth  of  mystical  "  transformation," 
adds:  "It  is  false  to  say  that  transformation  is  a  deification  of  the  real 
and  natural  soul,  or  a  hypostatic  union,  or  an  unalterable  conformity  with 
God." 


14  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

mystics  believed  in,  and  looked  for,  ecstatic  revelations, 
trances,  or  visions.  This,  again,  is  one  of  the  crucial 
questions  of  Mysticism. 

Ecstasy  or  vision  begins  when  thought  ceases,  to  our 
consciousness,  to  proceed  from  ourselves.  It  differs 
from  dreaming,  because  the  subject  is  awake.  It 
differs  from  hallucination,  because  there  is  no  organic 
disturbance :  it  is,  or  claims  to  be,  a  temporary  en- 
hancement, not  a  partial  disintegration,  of  the  mental 
faculties.  Lastly,  it  differs  from  poetical  inspiration, 
because  the  imagination  is  passive. 

That  perfectly  sane  people  often  experience  such 
visions  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt.  St.  Paul  fell 
into  a  trance  at  his  conversion,  and  again  at  a  later 
period,  when  he  seemed  to  be  caught  up  into  the  third 
heaven.  The  most  sober  and  practical  of  the  mediaeval 
mystics  speak  of  them  as  common  phenomena.  And 
in  modern  times  two  of  the  sanest  of  our  poets  have 
recorded  their  experiences  in  words  which  may  be  worth 
quoting. 

Wordsworth,  in  his  well-known  "  Lines  composed 
above  Tintern   Abbey,"  speaks  of — 

"  That  serene  and  blessed  mood, 
In  which  .  .  .  the  breath  of  this  corporeal  frame, 
And  even  the  motion  of  our  human  blood, 
Almost  suspended,  we  are  laid  asleep 
In  body,  and  become  a  living  soul  : 
While  with  an  eye  made  quiet  by  the  power 
Of  harmony,  and  the  deep  power  of  joy, 
We  see  into  the  life  of  things." 

And  Tennyson  says,^  "  A   kind  of  waking  trance   I 

^  Life  of  Tennyson,  vol.  i.  p.   320.     The  curious  experience,  that  the 
repetition  of  his  own  name  induced  a  kind  of  trance,  is  used  by  the  poet 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      15 

have  often  had,  quite  from  boyhood,  when  I  have  been 
all  alone.  This  has  generally  come  upon  me  through 
repeating  my  own  name  two  or  three  times  to  myself 
silently,  till  all  at  once,  out  of  the  intensity  of  the 
consciousness  of  individuality,  the  individual  itself 
seemed  to  dissolve  and  fade  away  into  boundless  being : 
and  this  not  a  confused  state,  but  the  clearest  of  the 
clearest,  and  the  surest  of  the  surest,  the  weirdest  of 
the  weirdest,  utterly  beyond  words,  where  death  was 
an  almost  laughable  impossibility,  the  loss  of  personality 
(if  so  it  were)  seeming  no  extinction,  but  the  only  true 
life." 

Admitting,  then,  that  these  psychical  phenomena 
actually  occur,  we  have  to  consider  whether  ecstasy  and 
kindred  states  are  an  integral  part  of  Mysticism.  In 
attempting  to  answer  this  question,  we  shall  find  it 
convenient  to  distinguish  between  the  Neoplatonic 
vision  of  the  super-essential  One,  the  Absolute,  which 
Plotinus  enjoyed  several  times,  and  Porphyry  only 
once,  and  the  visions  and  "  locutions "  which  are 
reported  in  all  times  and  places,  especially  where 
people  have  not  been  trained  in  scientific  habits  of 
thought  and  observation.  The  former  was  held  to  be 
an  exceedingly  rare  privilege,  the  culminating  point  of 
the  contemplative  life.  I  shall  speak  of  it  in  my  third 
Lecture ;  and  shall  there  show  that  it  belongs,  not  to 
the  essence  of  Mysticism,  and  still  less  to  Christianity, 
but  to  the  Asiatic  leaven  which  was  mixed  with 
Alexandrian  thought,  and  thence  passed  into  Catholic- 

in  his  beautiful  mystical  poem,  "  The  Ancient  Sage."  It  would,  indeed, 
have  been  equally  easy  to  illustrate  this  topic  from  Wordsworth's  prose 
and  Tennyson's  poetry. 


i6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

ism.  As  regards  visions  in  general,  they  were  no 
invention  of  the  mystics.  They  played  a  much  more 
important  part  in  the  life  of  the  early  Church  than 
many  ecclesiastical  historians  are  willing  to  admit. 
Tertullian,  for  instance,  says  calmly,  "  The  majority, 
almost,  of  men  learn  God  from  visions."  ^  Such  implicit 
reliance  was  placed  on  the  Divine  authority  of  visions, 
that  on  one  occasion  an  ignorant  peasant  and  a  married 
man  was  made  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  against  his 
will,  because  his  dying  predecessor  had  a  vision  that 
the  man  who  should  bring  him  a  present  of  grapes 
on  the  next  day  should  be  his  successor !  In  course 
of  time  visions  became  rarer  among  the  laity,  but 
continued  frequent  among  the  monks  and  clergy. 
And  so  the  class  which  furnished  most  of  the  shining 
lights  of  Mysticism  was  that  in  which  these  experiences 
were  most  common. 

But  we  do  not  find  that  the  masters  of  the  spiritual 
life  attached  very  much  importance  to  them,  or  often 
appealed  to  them  as  aids  to  faith.^  As  a  rule,  visions 
were  regarded  as  special  rewards  bestowed  by  the 
goodness  of  God  on  the  struggling  saint,  and  especially 
on  the  beginner,  to  refresh  him  and  strengthen  him  in 
the  hour  of  need.  Very  earnest  cautions  were  issued 
that  no  efforts  must  be  made  to  induce  them  artificially, 
and  aspirants  were  exhorted  neither  to  desire  them, 
nor  to  feel  pride  in  having  seen  them.      The  spiritual 

^  See  the  very  interesting  note  in  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  i.  p.  53. 

^  The  Abbe  Migne  says  truly,  "  Ceux  qui  traitent  les  mystiques  de 
visionnaires  seraient  fort  etonnes  de  voir  quel  peu  de  cas  ils  font  des  visions 
en  elles-memes."  And  St.  Bonaventura  says  of  visions,  "Nee  faciunt 
sanctum  nee  ostendunt :  alioquin  Balaam  sanctus  esset,  et  asiua,  qua; 
vidit  Angelum." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      17 

guides  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  well  aware  that  such 
experiences  often  come  of  disordered  nerves  and 
weakened  digestion  ;  they  believed  also  that  they  are 
sometimes  delusions  of  Satan.  Richard  of  St.  Victor 
says,  "  As  Christ  attested  His  transfiguration  by  the 
presence  of  Moses  and  Elias,  so  visions  should  not  be 
believed  unless  they  have  the  authority  of  Scripture." 
Albertus  Magnus  tries  to  classify  them,  and  says  that 
those  which  contain  a  sensuous  element  are  always 
dangerous.  Eckhart  is  still  more  cautious,  and  Tauler 
attaches  little  value  to  them.  Avila,  the  Spanish 
mystic,  says  that  only  those  visions  which  minister  to 
our  spiritual  necessities,  and  make  us  more  humble,  are 
genuine.  Self-induced  visions  inflate  us  with  pride, 
and  do  irreparable  injury  to  health  of  mind  and  body.^ 
It  hardly  falls  within  my  task  to  attempt  to  deter- 
mine what  these  visions  really  are.  The  subject  is 
one  upon  which  psychological  and  medical  science  may 
some  day  throw  more  light.  But  this  much  I  must 
say,  to  make  my  own  position  clear :  I  regard  these 
experiences  as  neither  more  nor  less  "supernatural" 
than  other  mental  phenomena.  Many  of  them  are  cer- 
tainly pathological ; 2  about  others  we  may  feel  doubts; 

^  The  following  passage  from  St.  Francis  de  Sales  is  much  to  the  same 
effect  as  those  referred  to  in  the  text:  "  Les  philosophes  mesmes  ont 
recogneu  certaines  especes  d'extascs  naturelles  faictes  par  la  vehemente 
application  de  I'esprit  a  la  consideration  des  choses  relevees.  Une  marque 
de  la  bonne  et  saincte  extase  est  qu'elle  ne  se  prend  ny  attache  jamais 
tant  a  I'entendement  qu'a  la  volonte,  laquelle  elle  esmeut,  eschauffe,  et 
remplit  d'une  puissante  affection  envers  Dieu  ;  de  maniere  que  si  I'extase 
est  plus  belle  que  bonne,  plus  lumineuse  qu'affective,  elle  est  grandement 
douteuse  et  digne  de  soupfon." 

-  Some  of  my  readers  may  find  satisfaction  in  the  following  passage  of 
Jeremy  Taylor:  "Indeed,  when  persons  have  long  been  softened  with 
the  continual  droppings  of  religion,  and  their  spirits  made  timorous  and 
2 


r.8  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

but  some  have  every  right  to  be  considered  as  real 
irradiations  of  the  soul  from  the  light  that  "  for  ever 
shines,"  real  notes  of  the  harmony  that  "  is  in  immortal 
souls."  In  illustration  of  this,  we  may  appeal  to  three 
places  in  the  Bible  where  revelations  of  the  profoundest 
truths  concerning  the  nature  and  counsels  of  God  are 
recorded  to  have  been  made  during  ecstatic  visions. 
Moses  at  Mount  Horeb  heard,  during  the  vision  of 
the  burning  bush,  a  proclamation  of  God  as  the  "  I 
am  " — the  Eternal  who  is  exalted  above  time.  Isaiah, 
in  the  words  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,"  perceived  dimly 
the  mystery  of  the  Trinity.  And  St.  Peter,  in  the 
vision  of  the  sheet,  learned  that  God  is  no  respecter  of 
persons  or  of  nationalities.  In  such  cases  the  highest 
intuitions  or  revelations,  which  the  soul  can  in  its  best 
moments  just  receive,  but  cannot  yet  grasp  or  account 
for,  make  a  language  for  themselves,  as  it  were,  and 
claim  the  sanction  of  external  authority,  until  the 
mind  is  elevated  so  far  as  to  feel  the  authority  not 
less  Divine,  but  no  longer  external.  We  may  find 
fairly  close  analogies  in  other  forms  of  that  "  Divine 
madness,"  which  Plato  says  is  "  the  source  of  the 
chiefest  blessings  granted  to  men  " — such  as  the  rapture 

apt  for  impression  by  the  assiduity  of  prayer,  and  the  continual  dyings  of 
mortification — the  fancy,  which  is  a  very  great  instrument  of  devotion,  is 
kept  continually  warm,  and  in  a  disposition  and  aptitude  to  take  fire,  and 
to  flame  out  in  great  ascents  ;  and  when  they  suffer  transportations  beyond 
the  burdens  and  support  of  reason,  they  suffer  they  know  not  what,  and 
call  it  what  they  please."  Henry  More,  too,  says  that  those  who  would 
"make  their  whole  nature  desolate  of  all  animal  figurations  whatever," 
find  only  "a  waste,  silent  solitude,  and  one  uniform  parchedness  and 
vacuity.  And  yet,  while  a  man  fancies  himself  thus  wholly  Divine,  he  is 
not  aware  how  he  is  even  then  held  down  by  his  animal  nature  ;  and  that 
it  is  nothing  but  the  stillness  and  fixedness  of  melancholy  that  thus  abuses 
him,  instead  of  the  true  Divine  principle." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      19 

of  the  poet,  or  (as  Plato  adds)  of  the  lover.^  And 
even  the  philosopher  or  man  of  science  may  be  sur- 
prised into  some  such  state  by  a  sudden  realisation  of 
the  sublimity  of  his  subject.  So  at  least  Lacordaire 
believed  when  he  wrote,  "  All  at  once,  as  if  by  chance, 
the  hair  stands  up,  the  breath  is  caught,  the  skin 
contracts,  and  a  cold  sword  pierces  to  the  very  soul. 
It  is  the  sublime  which  has  manifested  itself!"^ 
Even  in  cases  where  there  is  evident  hallucination,  e.g: 
when  the  visionary  sees  an  angel  or  devil  sitting  on 
his  book,  or  feels  an  arrow  thrust  into  his  heart,  there 
need  be  no  insanity.  In  periods  when  it  is  commonly 
believed  that  such  things  may  and  do  happen,  the 
imagination,  instead  of  being  corrected  by  experience, 
is  misled  by  it.  Those  who  honestly  expect  to  see 
miracles  will  generally  see  them,  without  detriment 
either  to  their  truthfulness  or  sanity  in  other  matters. 
The  mystic,  then,  is  not,  as  such,  a  visionary ;  nor 
has  he  any  interest  in  appealing  to  a  faculty  "  above 
reason,"  if  reason  is  used  in  its  proper  sense,  as  the 
logic  of  the  whole  personality.  The  desire  to  find 
for  our  highest  intuitions  an  authority  wholly  external 
to  reason  and  independent  of  it, — a  "  purely  super- 
natural "  revelation, — has,  as  Recejac  says,  "  been  the 
cause  of  the  longest  and  the  most  dangerous  of  the 
aberrations  from  which  Mysticism  has  suffered."  This 
kind  of  supernaturalism  is  destructive  of  unity  in  our 
ideas  of  God,  the  world,  and  ourselves ;  and  it  casts  a 
slur  on  the  faculties  which  are  the  appointed  organs 
of  communication  between   God  and  man.     A  revela- 

^  Plato,  Plucdrus,  244,  245  ;  Ion,  534. 
-  Lacordaire,  Conferences,  xxxvii. 


20  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

tion  absolutely  transcending  reason  is  an  absurdity : 
no  such  revelation  could  ever  be  made.  In  the 
striking  phrase  of  Macarius,  "  the  human  mind  is  the 
throne  of  the  Godhead."  The  supremacy  of  the  reason 
is  the  favourite  theme  of  the  Cambridge  Platonists, 
two  of  whom,  Whichcote  and  Culverwel,  are  never 
tired  of  quoting  the  text,  "  The  spirit  of  man  is  the 
candle  of  the  Lord."  "  Sir,  I  oppose  not  rational  to 
spiritual,"  writes  Whichcote  to  Tuckney,  "  for  spiritual 
is  most  rational."  And  again,  "  Reason  is  the  Divine 
governor  of  man's  life :  it  is  the  very  voice  of  God."  ^ 
What  we  can  and  must  transcend,  if  we  would  make 
any  progress  in  Divine  knowledge,  is  not  reason,  but 
that  shallow  rationalism  which  regards  the  data  on 
which  we  can  reason  as  a  fixed  quantity,  known  to 
all,  and  which  bases  itself  on  a  formal  logic,  utterly 
unsuited  to  a  spiritual  view  of  things.  Language  can 
only  furnish  us  with  poor,  misleading,  and  wholly 
inadequate  images  of  spiritual  facts ;  it  supplies  us 
with  abstractions  and  metaphors,  which  do  not  really 
represent  what  we  know  or  believe  about  God  and 
human  personality.  St.  Paul  calls  attention  to  this 
inadequacy  by  a  series  of  formal  contradictions :  "  I 
live,  yet  not  I  "  ;  "  dying,  and  behold  we  live  "  ;  "  when 
I   am  weak,  then   I   am  strong,"  and  so  forth  ;  and  we 

'  Compare,  too,  the  vigorous  words  of  Henry  More,  the  most  mystical 
of  the  group  :  "lie  that  misbelieves  and  lays  aside  clear  and  cautious 
reason  in  things  that  fall  under  the  discussion  of  reason,  upon  the  pretence 
of  hankering  after  some  higher  principle  (which,  a  thousand  to  one,  proves 
but  the  infatuation  of  melancholy,  and  a  superstitious  hallucination),  is  as 
ridiculous  as  if  he  would  not  use  his  natural  eyes  about  their  proper 
object  till  the  presence  of  some  supernatural  light,  or  till  he  had  got  a 
pair  of  spectacles  made  of  the  crystalline  heaven,  or  of  the  ca:luni  evipyreuvi, 
to  hang  upon  his  nose  for  him  to  look  through." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      21 

find  exactly  the  same  expedient  in  Plotinus,  who  is 
very  fond  of  thus  showing  his  contempt  for  the  logic 
of  identity.  When,  therefore,  Harnack  says  that 
"  Mysticism  is  nothing  else  than  rationalism  applied 
to  a  sphere  above  reason,"  he  would  have  done  better 
to  say  that  it  is  "  reason  applied  to  a  sphere  above 
rationalism."  ^ 

For  Reason  is  still  "  king."  ^  Religion  must  not  be 
a  matter  oi  feeling  only.  St.  John's  command  to  "  try 
every  spirit "  condemns  all  attempts  to  make  emotion 
or  inspiration  independent  of  reason.  Those  who  thus 
blindly  follow  the  inner  light  find  it  no  "  candle  of 
the  Lord,"  but  an  ignis  fatuus ;  and  the  great  mystics 
are  well  aware  of  this.  The  fact  is  that  the  tendency 
to  separate  and  half  personify  the  different  faculties 
— intellect,  will,  feeling — is  a  mischievous  one.  Our 
object  should  be  so  to  tmify  our  personality,  that  our 
eye  may  be  single,  and  our  whole  body  full  of  light. 

We  have  considered  briefly  the  three  stages  of  the 
mystic's  upward  path.  The  scheme  of  life  therein 
set  forth  was  no  doubt  determined  empirically,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  simplest  and  most 
unlettered  saint  from  framing  his  conduct  on  these 
principles.  Many  of  the  medieval  mystics  had  no 
taste  for  speculation  or  philosophy ;  ^  they  accepted  on 
authority   the    entire    body   of    Church    dogma,    and 


^  There  is,  of  course,  a  sense  in  which  any  strong  feehng  Hfts  us  ' '  above 
reason."     But  this  is  using  "reason  "  in  a  loose  manner. 

^  6  vo\J%  jSaertXei/s,  says  Plotinus. 

^  Roman  Catholic  writers  can  assert  that  "la  plupart  des  contemplatifs 
etaient  depourvus  de  toute  culture  litteraire."  But  their  notion  of  "con- 
templation" is  the  passive  reception  of  "supernatural  favours," — on  which 
subject  more  will  be  said  in  Lectures  IV.  and  VII. 


22  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

devoted  their  whole  attention  to  the  perfecting  of  the 
spiritual  life  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God.  But 
this  cannot  be  said  of  the  leaders.  Christian  Mysticism 
appears  in  history  largely  as  an  intellectual  movement, 
the  foster-child  of  Platonic  idealism ;  and  if  ever,  for  a 
time,  it  forgot  its  early  history,  men  were  soon  found 
to  bring  it  back  to  "  its  old  loving  nurse  the  Platonic 
philosophy."  It  will  be  my  task,  in  the  third  and 
fourth  Lectures  of  this  course,  to  show  how  speculative 
Christian  Mysticism  grew  out  of  Neoplatonism  ;  but  we 
shall  not  be  allowed  to  forget  the  Platonists  even  in 
the  later  Lectures.  "  The  fire  still  burns  on  the  altars 
of  Plotinus,"  as  Eunapius  said. 

Mysticism  is  not  itself  a  philosophyf-any  more  than 
it  is  itself  a  religion.  On  its  intellectual  side  it  has 
been  called  "  formless  speculation."  ^  But  until  specula- 
tions or  intuitions  have  entered  into  the  forms  of  our 
thought,  they  are  not  current  coin  even  for  the  thinker. 
The  part  played  by  Mysticism  in  philosophy  is  parallel 
to  the  part  played  by  it  in  religion.  As  in  religion  it 
appears  in  revolt  against  dry  formalism  and  cold 
rationalism,  so  in  philosophy  it  takes  the  field  against 
materialism  and  scepticism.-  It  is  thus  possible  to 
speak  of  speculative  Mysticism,  and  even  to  indicate 
certain  idealistic  lines  of  thought,  which  may  without 
entire  falsity  be  called  the  philosophy  of  Mysticism. 
In  this  introductory  Lecture  I  can,  of  course,  only  hint 
at  these  in  the  barest  and  most  summary  manner. 
And  it  must  be  remembered  that  I  have  undertaken 

^  "Die  Mystik  ist  formlose  Speculation,"  Noack,  Christliche  Mystik, 
p.  1 8. 

^  The  Atomists,  from  Epicurus  downwards,  have  been  especially  odious 
to  the  mystics. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      23 

to-day  to  delineate  the  general  characteristics  of 
Mysticism,  not  of  Christian  Mysticism.  I  am  trying, 
moreover,  in  this  Lecture  to  confine  myself  to  those 
developments  which  I  consider  normal  and  genuine, 
excluding  the  numerous  aberrant  types  which  we 
shall  encounter  in  the  course  of  our  survey. 

The  real  world,  according  to  thinkers  of  this  school, 
is  created  by  the  thought  and  will  of  God,  and  exists 
in  His  mind.  It  is  therefore  spiritual,  and  above 
space  and  time,  which  are  only  the  forms  under  which 
reality  is  set  out  as  a  process. 

When  we  try  to  represent  to  our  minds  the  highest 
reality,  the  spiritual  world,  as  distinguished  from  the 
world  of  appearance,  we  are  obliged  to  form  images ; 
and  we  can  hardly  avoid  choosing  one  of  the  following 
three  images.  We  may  regard  the  spiritual  world  as 
endless  duration  opposed  to  transitoriness,  as  infinite 
extension  opposed  to  limitation  in  space,  or  as  sub- 
stance opposed  to  shadow.  All  these  are,  strictly 
speaking,  symbols  or  metaphors,^  for  we  cannot  regard 
any  of  them  as  literally  true  statements  about  the 
nature  of  reality ;  but  they  are  as  near  the  truth  as 
we  can  get  in  words.  But  when  we  think  of  time  as 
a  piece  cut  off  from  the  beginning  of  eternity,  so  that 
eternity  is  only  in  the  future  and  not  in  the  present ; 
when  we  think  of  heaven  as   a  place  somewhere  else, 


^  The  theory  that  time  is  real,  but  not  space,  leads  us  into  grave  diffi- 
culties. It  is  the  root  of  the  least  satisfactory  kind  of  evolutionary 
optimism,  which  forgets,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  idea  of  perpetual 
progress  in  time  is  hopelessly  at  variance  with  what  we  know  of  the 
destiny  of  the  world  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  that  a  mere  progressus  is 
meaningless.  Every  created  thing  has  its  fixed  goal  in  the  realisation  of 
the  idea  which  was  immanent  in  it  from  the  first. 


24  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

and  therefore  not  here ;  when  we  think  of  an  upper 
ideal  world  which  has  sucked  all  the  life  out  of  this,  so 
that  we  now  walk  in  a  vain  shadow, — then  we  are 
paying  the  penalty  for  our  symbolical  representative 
methods  of  thought,  and  must  go  to  philosophy  to  help 
us  out  of  the  doubts  and  difficulties  in  which  our  error 
has  involved  us.  One  test  is  infallible.  Whatever 
view  of  reality  deepens  our  sense  of  the  tremendous 
issues  of  life  in  the  world  wherein  we  move,  is  for  us 
nearer  the  truth  than  any  view  which  diminishes  that 
sense.  The  truth  is  revealed  to  us  that  we  may  have 
life,  and  have  it  more  abundantly. 

The  world  as  it  is,  is  the  world  as  God  sees  it,  not 
as  we  see  it.  Our  vision  is  distorted,  not  so  much  by 
the  limitations  of  finitude,  as  by  sin  and  ignorance. 
The  more  we  can  raise  ourselves  in  the  scale  of  being, 
the  more  will  our  ideas  about  God  and  the  world 
correspond  to  the  reality.  "  Such  as  men  themselves 
are,  such  will  God  Himself  seem  to  them  to  be,"  says 
John  Smith,  the  English  Platonist.  Origen,  too,  says 
that  those  whom  Judas  led  to  seize  Jesus  did  not 
know  who  He  was,  for  the  darkness  of  their  own  souls 
was  projected  on  His  features.^  And  Dante,  in  a  very 
beautiful  passage,  says  that  he  felt  that  he  was  rising 
into  a  higher  circle,  because  he  saw  Beatrice's  face 
becoming  more  beautiful.^ 

This  view   of  reality,  as   a  vista   which    is   opened 

^  Origen  in  Matth.,  Com.  Series,  lOO ;  Contra  Celsum,  ii.  64.     Referred 
to  by  Bigg,  Christian  Flatonists  of  Alexandria,  p.  191. 
-  Paradiso  viii.  13 — 

"  lo  non  m'accorsi  del  salire  in  ella ; 
Ma  d'esserv'  entro  mi  fece  assai  fede 
La  donna  mia  ch'io  vidi  far  piu  bella." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      25 

gradually  to  the  eyes  of  the  climber  up  the  holy  mount, 
is  very  near  to  the  heart  of  Mysticism.  It  rests  on 
the  faith  that  the  ideal  not  only  ought  to  be,  but  is  the 
real.  It  has  been  applied  by  some,  notably  by  that 
earnest  but  fantastic  thinker,  James  Hinton,  as  offering 
a  solution  of  the  problem  of  evil.  We  shall  encounter 
attempts  to  deal  with  this  great  difficulty  in  several  of 
the  Christian  mystics.  The  problem  among  the  specu- 
lative writers  was  how  to  reconcile  the  Absolute  of 
philosophy,  who  is  above  all  distinctions,^  with  the  God 
of  religion,  who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity. 
They  could  not  allow  that  evil  has  a  substantial  exist- 
ence apart  from  God,  for  fear  of  being  entangled  in  an 
insoluble  Dualism.  But  if  evil  is  derived  from  God, 
how  can  God  be  good  ?  We  shall  find  that  the  pre- 
vailing view  was  that  "  Evil  has  no  substance." 
"  There  is  nothing,"  says  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  "  which 
falls  outside  of  the  Divine  nature,  except  moral  evil 
alone.  And  this,  we  may  say  paradoxically,  has  its 
being  in  not-being.  For  the  genesis  of  moral  evil  is 
simply  the  privation  of  being.^  That  which,  properly 
speaking,  exists,  is  the  nature  of  the  good."  The 
Divine  nature,  in  other  words,  is  that  which  excludes 
nothing,  and  contradicts  nothing,  except  those  attri- 
butes which  are  contrary  to  the  nature  of  reality ;  it  is 
that  which  harmonises  everything  except  discord,  which 
loves  everything  except  hatred,  verifies  everything 
except  falsehood,  and  beautifies  everything  except 
ugliness.     Thus   that   which   falls   outside   the   notion 

^  "  Deo  nihil  opponitur,"  says  Erigena. 

-  Compare  Bradley,  Appearance  and  Reality,  where  it  is  shown  that  tlie 
essential  attributes  of  Reality  are  harmony  and  inchisiveness. 


26  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

of  God,  proves  on  examination  to  be  not  merely 
unreal,  but  unreality  as  such.  But  the  relation  of 
evil  to  the  Absolute  is  not  a  religious  problem.  To 
our  experience,  evil  exists  as  a  positive  force  not 
subject  to  the  law  of  God,  though  constantly  overruled 
and  made  an  instrument  of  good.  On  this  subject  we 
must  say  more  later.  Here  I  need  only  add  that  a 
sunny  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  good 
shines  from  the  writings  of  most  of  the  mystics, 
especially,  I  think,  in  our  own  countrymen.  The 
Cambridge  Platonists  are  all  optimistic ;  and  in  the 
beautiful  but  little  known  Revelations  of  Juliana  of 
Norwich,  we  find  in  page  after  page  the  refrain  of 
"  All  shall  be  well"  "  Sin  is  behovable,^  but  all  shall 
be  well,  and  all  manner  of  thing  shall  be  well." 

Since  the  universe  is  the  thought  and  will  of  God 
expressed  under  the  forms  of  time  and  space,  every- 
thing in  it  reflects  the  nature  of  its  Creator,  though  in 
different  degrees.  Erigena  says  finely,  "  Every  visible 
and  invisible  creature  is  a  theophany  or  appearance  of 
God."  The  purest  mirror  in  the  world  is  the  highest 
of  created  things — the  human  soul  unclouded  by  sin. 
And  this  brings  us  to  a  point  at  which  Mysticism 
falls  asunder  into  two  classes. 

The  question  which  divides  them  is  this — In  the 
higher  stages  of  the  spiritual  life,  shall  we  learn  most 
of  the  nature  of  God  by  close,  sympathetic,  reverent 
observation  of  the  world  around  us,  including  our 
fellow-men,  or  by  sinking  into  the  depths  of  our  inner 
consciousness,  and  aspiring  after  direct  and  constant 
communion  with   God  ?      Each  method  may  claim   the 

^  I.e.  "necessary"  or  "expedient." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      27 

support  of  weighty  names.  The  former,  which  will 
form  the  subject  of  my  seventh  and  eighth  Lectures, 
is  very  happily  described  by  Charles  Kingsley  in  an 
early  letter.^  "  The  great  Mysticism,"  he  says,  "  is  the 
belief  which  is  becoming  every  day  stronger  with  me, 
that  all  symmetrical  natural  objects  .  .  .  are  types  of 
some  spiritual  truth  or  existence.  .  .  .  Everything 
seems  to  be  full  of  God's  reflex  if  we  could  but  see  it. 
.  .  .  Oh,  to  see,  if  but  for  a  moment,  the  whole  harmony 
of  the  great  system  !  to  hear  once  the  music  which  the 
whole  universe  makes  as  it  performs  His  bidding ! 
When  I  feel  that  sense  of  the  mystery  that  is  around 
me,  I  feel  a  gush  of  enthusiasm  towards  God,  which 
seems  its  inseparable  effect." 

On  the  other  side  stand  the  majority  of  the  earlier 
mystics.  Believing  that  God  is  "  closer  to  us  than 
breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet,"  they  are 
impatient  of  any  intermediaries.  "  We  need  not  search 
for  His  footprints  in  Nature,  when  we  can  behold  His 
face  in  ourselves,^  is  their  answer  to  St.  Augustine's 
fine  expression  that  all  things  bright  and  beautiful  in 
the  world  are  "  footprints  of  the  uncreated  Wisdom."  ^ 
Coleridge  has  expressed  their  feeling  in  his  "  Ode  to 
Dejection  " — 

"  It  were  a  vain  endeavour. 
Though  I  should  gaze  for  ever 

On  that  green  light  that  Hngers  in  the  West  ; 

I  may  not  hope  from  outward  forms  to  win 
The  passion  and  the  Hfe  whose  fountains  are  within." 

"  Grace  works  from  within  outwards,"  says  Ruysbroek, 

^  Life,  vol.  i.  p.  55. 

^  J.  Smith,  Select  Discourses,  v.     So  Bernard  says  {De  Consid.  v.   l), 
"  quid  opus  est  scalis  tenenti  iam  solium  ?" 
*  Aug.  De  Libera  Arbitrio,  ii.  16,  17. 


28  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

for  God  is  nearer  to  us  than  our  own  faculties.  Hence 
it  cannot  come  from  images  and  sensible  forms."  "If 
thou  wishest  to  search  out  the  deep  things  of  God," 
says  Richard  of  St.  Victor,  "  search  out  the  depths  of 
thine  own  spirit." 

The  truth  is  that  there  are  two  movements, — a 
systole  and  diastole  of  the  spiritual  life, — an  expansion 
and  a  concentration.  The  tendency  has  generally  been 
to  emphasise  one  at  the  expense  of  the  other;  but  they 
must  work  together,  for  each  is  helpless  without  the 
other.      As  Shakespeare  says  ^ — 

"  Nor  doth  the  eye  itself, 
That  most  pure  spirit  of  sense,  behold  itself. 
Not  going  from  itself,  but  eye  to  eye  opposed, 
Salutes  each  other  with  each  other's  form  : 
For  speculation  turns  not  to  itself 
Till  it  hath  travelled,  and  is  mirrored  there. 
Where  it  may  see  itself." 

Nature  is  dumb,  and  our  own  hearts  are  dumb,  until 
they  are  allowed  to  speak  to  each  other.  Then  both 
will  speak  to  us  of  God. 

Speculative  Mysticism  has  occupied  itself  largely 
with  these  two  great  subjects — the  immanence  of  God 
in  nature,  and  the  relation  of  human  personality  to 
Divine.  A  few  words  must  be  said,  before  I  conclude, 
on  both  these  matters. 

The  Unity  of  all  existence  is  a  fundamental  doctrine 
of  Mysticism.  God  is  in  all,  and  all  is  in  God.  "  His 
centre  is  everywhere,  and  His  circumference  nowhere," 
as  St.  Bonaventura  puts  it.  It  is  often  arguerd  that 
this  doctrine  leads  direct  to  Pantheism,  and  that  specu- 
lative Mysticism   is  always  and  necessarily  pantheistic. 

^  Troilus  and  Cressida^  Act  ni.  Scene  3. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      29 

This  is,  of  course,  a  question  of  primary  importance. 
It  is  in  the  hope  of  dealing  with  it  adequately  that  I 
have  selected  three  writers  who  have  been  frequently 
called  pantheists,  for  discussion  in  these  Lectures.  I 
mean  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  Scotus  Erigena,  and 
Eckhart.  But  it  would  be  impossible  even  to  indicate 
my  line  of  argument  in  the  few  minutes  left  me  this 
morning. 

The  mystics  are  much  inclined  to  adopt,  in  a 
modified  form,  the  old  notion  of  an  anima  inundi. 
When  Erigena  says,  "  Be  well  assured  that  the  Word — 
the  second  Person  of  the  Trinity — is  the  Nature  of  all 
things,"  he  means  that  the  Logos  is  a  cosmic  principle, 
the  Personality  of  which  the  universe  is  the  external 
expression  or  appearance.^ 

We  are  not  now  concerned  with  cosmological  specu- 
lations, but  the  bearing  of  this  theory  on  human 
personality  is  obvious.  If  the  Son  of  God  is  regarded 
as  an  all-embracing  and  all-pervading  cosmic  principle, 
the  "  mystic  union  "  of  the  believer  with  Christ  becomes 
something  much  closer  than  an  ethical  harmony  of 
two    mutually    exclusive    wills.     The   question    which 

^  This  idea  of  the  world  as  a  living  being  is  found  in  Plotinus :  and 
Origen  definitely  teaches  that  "as  our  body,  while  consisting  of  many 
members,  is  yet  an  organism  which  is  held  together  by  one  soul,  so  the 
universe  is  to  be  thought  of  as  an  immense  living  being  which  is  upheld  by 
the  power  and  the  Word  of  God."  He  also  holds  that  the  sun  and  stars 
are  spiritual  beings.  St.  Augustine,  too  [De  Civitate  Dei,  iv.  12,  vii.  5), 
regards  the  universe  as  a  living  organism  ;  and  the  doctrine  reappears  much 
later  in  Giordano  Bruno.  According  to  this  theory,  we  are  subsidiary 
members,  of  an  all-embracing  organism,  and  there  may  be  intermediate 
will-centres  between  our  own  and  that  of  the  universal  Ego.  Among 
modern  systems,  that  of  Fechner  is  the  one  which  seems  to  be  most  in 
accordance  with  these  speculations.  He  views  life  under  the  figure  of  a 
number  of  concentric  circles  of  consciousness,  within  an  all-embracing 
circle  which  represents  the  consciousness  of  God. 


30  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

exercises  the  mystics  is  not  whether  such  a  thing  as 
fusion  of  personalities  is  possible,  but  whether,  when 
the  soul  has  attained  union  with  its  Lord,  it  is  any 
longer  conscious  of  a  life  distinct  from  that  of  the 
Word.  We  shall  find  that  some  of  the  best  mystics 
went  astray  on  this  point.  They  teach  a  real  substitu- 
tion of  the  Divine  for  human  nature,  thus  depersonalising 
man,  and  running  into  great  danger  of  a  perilous 
arrogance.  The  mistake  is  a  fatal  one  even  from  the 
speculative  side,  for  it  is  only  on  the  analogy  of  human 
personality  that  we  can  conceive  of  the  perfect  person- 
ality of  God ;  and  without  personality  the  universe 
falls  to  pieces.  Personality  is  not  only  the  strictest 
unity  of  which  we  have  any  experience ;  it  is  the  fact 
which  creates  the  postulate  of  unity  on  which  all 
philosophy  is  based. 

But  it  is  possible  to  save  personality  without  re- 
garding the  human  spirit  as  a  monad,  independent 
and  sharply  separated  from  other  spirits.  Distinction, 
not  separation,  is  the  mark  of  personality ;  but  it  is 
separation,  not  distinction,  that  forbids  union.  The 
error,  according  to  the  mystic's  psychology,  is  in 
regarding  consciousness  of  self  as  the  measure  of 
personality.  The  depths  of  personality  are  unfathom- 
able, as  Heraclitus  already  knew ;  ^  the  light  of 
consciousness  only  plays  on  the  surface  of  the  waters. 
Jean  Paul  Richter  is  a  true  exponent  of  this  character- 
istic doctrine  when  he  says,  "  We  attribute  far  too  small 
dimensions  to  the  rich  empire  of  ourself,  if  we  omit 
from    it    the    unconscious    region   which    resembles    a 

^  V'X'?^   Treipara   ovk  h.v  e^evpoio  Tracrav  iirnropevdfj.ei'Oi  odoV  ovtu  ^adiiv 
\6yov  ^xf'i  ^''^^-  7^- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      31 

great  dark  continent.  The  world  which  our  memory 
peoples  only  reveals,  in  its  revolution,  a  few  luminous 
points  at  a  time,  while  its  immense  and  teeming  mass 
remains  in  shade.  .  .  .  We  daily  see  the  conscious 
passing  into  unconsciousness ;  and  take  no  notice  of 
the  bass  accompaniment  which  our  fingers  continue  to 
play,  while  our  attention  is  directed  to  fresh  musical 
effects."  ^  So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that  the  self  of 
our  immediate  consciousness  is  our  true  personality, 
that  we  can  only  attain  personality,  as  spiritual  and 
rational  beings,  by  passing  beyond  the  limits  which 
mark  us  off  as  separate  individuals.  Separate  indi- 
viduality, we  may  say,  is  the  bar  which  prevents  us 
from  realising  our  true  privileges  as  persons.^  And  so 
the  mystic  interprets  very  literally  that  maxim  of  our 
Lord,  in  which  many  have  found  the  fundamental 
secret  of  Christianity :  "  He  that  will  save  his  life — 
his  soul,  his  personality — shall  lose  it ;  and  he  that  will 
lose  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it."  The  false  self 
must  die — nay,  must  "  die  daily,"  for  the  process  is 
gradual,  and  there  is  no  limit  to  it.  It  is  a  process  of 
infinite  expansion — of  realising  new  correspondences, 
new  sympathies  and  affinities  with  the  not-ourselves, 
which  affinities  condition,  and  in  conditioning  consti- 
tute, our  true  life  as  persons.     The  paradox  is  offensive 

^  J.  P.  Richter,  6'^/ma.  Compare,  too,  Lotze,  Microcosnius :  "Within 
us  lurks  a  world  whose  form  we  imperfectly  apprehend,  and  whose  working, 
when  in  particular  phases  it  comes  under  our  notice,  surprises  us  with  fore- 
shadowings  of  unknown  depths  in  our  being." 

^  As  Lotze  says,  "The  finite  being  does  not  contain  in  itself  the  condi- 
tions of  its  own  existence."  It  must  struggle  to  attain  to  complete  per- 
sonality ;  or  rather,  since  personality  belongs  unconditionally  only  to  God, 
to  such  a  measure  of  personality  as  is  allotted  to  us.  Eternal  life  is  nothing 
else  than  the  attainment  of  full  personality,  a  conscious  existence  in  God. 


32  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

only  to  formal  logic.  As  a  matter  of  experience,  no 
one,  I  imagine,  would  maintain  that  the  man  who  has 
practically  realised,  to  the  fullest  possible  extent,  the 
common  life  which  he  draws  from  his  Creator,  and 
shares  with  all  other  created  beings, — so  realised  it,  I 
mean,  as  to  draw  from  that  consciousness  all  the 
influences  which  can  play  upon  him  from  outside, — 
has  thereby  dissipated  and  lost  his  personality,  and 
become  less  of  a  person  than  another  who  has  built  a 
wall  round  his  individuality,  and  lived,  as  Plato  says, 
the  life  of  a  shell-fish.-^ 

We  may  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion  by  analysing 
that  unconditioned  sense  of  duty  which  we  call  con- 
science. This  moral  sense  cannot  be  a  fixed  code 
implanted  in  our  consciousness,  for  then  we  could  not 
explain  either  the  variations  of  moral  opinion,  or  the 
feeling  of  obligation  (as  distinguished  from  necessity) 
which  impels  us  to  obey  it.  It  cannot  be  the  product 
of  the  existing  moral  code  of  society,  for  then  we  could 
not  explain  either  the  genesis  of  that  public  opinion  or 

^  J.  A.  I'icton  ( The  Mystery  of  Matter,  p.  356)  puts  the  matter  well : 
' '  Mysticism  consists  in  the  spiritual  realisation  of  a  grander  and  a  boundless 
unity,  that  humbles  all  self-assertion  by  dissolving  it  in  a  wider  glory.  It 
does  not  follow  that  the  sense  of  individuality  is  necessarily  weakened. 
But  habitual  contemplation  of  the  Divine  unity  impresses  men  with  the 
feeling  that  individuality  is  phenomenal  only.  Hence  the  paradox  of 
Mysticism.  For  apart  from  this  phenomenal  individuality,  we  should  not 
know  our  own  nothingness,  and  personal  life  is  good  only  through  the 
bliss  of  being  lost  in  God.  [Rather,  I  should  say,  through  the  bliss  of 
finding  our  true  life,  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,]  True  religious 
worship  doth  not  consist  in  the  acknowledgment  of  a  greatness  which  is 
estimated  by  comparison,  but  rather  in  the  sense  of  a  Being  who  surpasses 
all  comparison,  because  He  gives  to  phenomenal  existences  the  only  reality 
they  can  know.  Hence  the  deepest  religious  feeling  necessarily  shrinks 
from  thinking  of  God  as  a  kind  of  gigantic  Self  amidst  a  host  of  minor 
selves.  The  very  thought  of  such  a  thing  is  a  mockery  of  the  profoundest 
devotion." 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      33 

the  persistent  revolt  against  its  limitations  which  we 
find  in  the  greatest  minds.  The  only  hypothesis 
which  explains  the  facts  is  that  in  conscience  we  feel 
the  motions  of  the  universal  Reason  which  strives  to 
convert  the  human  organism  into  an  organ  of  itself, 
a  belief  which  is  expressed  in  religious  language  by 
saying  that  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  us  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure. 

If  it  be  further  asked,  Which  is  our  personality,  the 
shifting  moi  (as  F^nelon  calls  it),  or  the  ideal  self,  the 
end  or  the  developing  states  ?  we  must  answer  that  it  is 
both  and  neither,  and  that  the  root  of  mystical  religion 
is  in  the  conviction  that  it  is  at  once  both  and  neither.^ 
The  moi  strives  to  realise  its  end,  but  the  end  being  an 
infinite  one,  no  process  can  reach  it.  Those  who  have 
"  counted  themselves  to  have  apprehended "  have 
thereby  left  the  mystical  faith ;  and  those  who  from 
the  notion  of  a  progressus  ad  infinitum  come  to  the 
pessimistic  conclusion,  are  equally  false  to  the  mystical 
creed,  which  teaches  us  that  we  are  already  potenti- 
ally what  God  intends  us  to  become.  The  command, 
"  Be  ye  perfect,"  is,  like  all  Divine  commands,  at  the 
same  time  a  promise. 

It  is  stating  the  same  paradox  in  another  form  to 
say  that  we  can  only  achieve  inner  unity  by  transcend- 
ing mere  individuality.  The  independent,  impervious 
self  shows  its  unreality  by  being  inwardly  discordant. 
It  is  of  no  use  to  enlarge  the  circumference  of  our  life, 
if  the  fixed  centre  is  always  the  ego.  There  are,  if 
I  may  press  the  metaphor,  other  circles  with  other 
centres,  in  which  we  are  vitally  involved.      And  thus 

^  See,  further,  Appendix  C,  pp.  366-7. 

3 


34  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

sympathy,  or  love,  which  is  sympathy  in  its  highest 
power,  is  the  great  atoner^  within  as  well  as  without. 
The  old  Pythagorean  maxim,  that  "  a  man  must  be 
onel'  ^  is  echoed  by  all  the  mystics.  He  must  be  one 
as  God  is  one,  and  the  world  is  one ;  for  man  is  a 
microcosm,  a  living  mirror  of  the  universe.  Here, 
once  more,  we  have  a  characteristic  mystical  doctrine, 
which  is  perhaps  worked  out  most  fully  in  the  *'  Fo7is 
Vitce"  of  Avicebron  (Ibn  Gebirol),  a  work  which  had 
great  influence  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  doctrine 
justifies  the  use  of  analogy  in  matters  of  religion,  and 
is  of  great  importance.  One  might  almost  dare  to 
say  that  all  conclusions  about  the  world  above  us 
which  are  not  based  on  the  analogy  of  our  own 
mental  experiences,  are  either  false  or  meaningless. 

The  idea  of  man  as  a  microcosm  was  developed  in 
two  ways.  Plotinus  said  that  "  every  man  is  double," 
meaning  that  one  side  of  his  soul  is  in  contact  with  the 
intelligible,  the  other  with  the  sensible  world.  He  is 
careful  to  explain  that  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Im- 
manence does  not  mean  that  God  divides  Himself 
among  the  many  individuals,  but  that  they  partake  of 
Him  according  to  their  degrees  of  receptivity,  so  that 
each  one  is  potentially  in  possession  of  all  the  fulness 
of  God.  Proclus  tries  to  explain  how  this  can  be. 
"  There  are  three  sorts  of  Wholes — the  first,  anterior  to 
the  parts ;  the  second,  composed  of  the  parts ;  the 
third,  knitting  into  one  stuff  the  parts  and  the  whole."^ 

^  «Va  yeviijBai  rbv  SLvQputrov  Set:  Pythagoras  quoted  by  Clement.  Cf. 
Plotinus,  Enn.  vi.  9.  i,  koL  iiyUia  8i,  Sraf  eh  iv  crvvTaxdrj  t6  aw/xa,  Kal 
KciWos  brav  t]  tov  fvi)s  to.  fxbpia  KardaxV  4"^<^^^,  '*'"'  aperrj  St  '/'I'XV*  ^Tav  fi'y 
^f  Kal  eh  p.lat>  bfioXoyiav  iviofffj. 

-  Proclus,  ]>i  Titn.  83.  265. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MYSTICISM      35 

In  this  third  sense  the  whole  resides  in  the  parts,  as 
well  as  the  parts  in  the  whole.  St.  Augustine  states 
the  same  doctrine  in  clearer  language.^  It  will  be 
seen  at  once  how  this  doctrine  encourages  that  class  of 
Mysticism  which  bids  us  "  sink  into  the  depths  of  our 
own  souls  "  in  order  to  find  God. 

The  other  development  of  the  theory  that  man  is  a 
microcosm  is  not  less  important  and  interesting.  It  is 
a  favourite  doctrine  of  the  mystics  that  man,  in  his 
individual  life,  recapitulates  the  spiritual  history  of  the 
race,  in  much  the  same  way  in  which  embryologists 
tell  us  that  the  unborn  infant  recapitulates  the  whole 
process  of  physical  evolution.  It  follows  that  the 
Incarnation,  the  central  fact  of  human  history,  must 
have  its  analogue  in  the  experience  of  the  individual. 
We  shall  find  that  this  doctrine  of  the  birth  of  an 
infant  Christ  in  the  soul  is  one  of  immense  importance 
in  the  systems  of  Eckhart,  Tauler,  and  our  Cambridge 
Platonists.  It  is  a  somewhat  perilous  doctrine,  as  we 
shall  see ;  but  it  is  one  which,  I  venture  to  think,  has  a 
future  as  well  as  a  past,  for  the  progress  of  modern 
science  has  greatly  strengthened  the  analogies  on 
which  it  rests.  I  shall  show  in  my  next  Lecture  how 
strongly  St.  Paul  felt  its  value. 

This  brief  introduction  will,  1  hope,  have  indicated 
the  main  characteristics  of  mystical  theology  and 
religion.      It  is  a  type  which   is  as  repulsive  to  some 

'Aug.  Ep.  187.  19:  "  Deus  totus  adesse  rebus  omnibus  potest,  et 
singulis  totus,  quamvis  in  quibus  habitat  habeant  eum  pro  suae  capacitatis 
diversitate,  alii  aniplius,  alii  minus."  More  clearly  still,  Bonaventura, 
Jlin.  nienl.  ad  Deum,  5  :  "  Totum  intra  omnia,  et  totum  extra :  ac  per 
hoc  est  sphaera  intelligibilis,  cuius  centrum  est  ubique,  et  circumferentia 
nusquam," 


36  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

minds  as  it  is  attractive  to  others.      Coleridge  has  said 
that  everyone  is  born   a  Platonist  or   an   Aristotelian, 
and  one  might  perhaps  adapt  the  epigram  by  saying 
that     everyone    is    naturally    either    a    mystic    or    a 
legalist.       The    classification    does,    indeed,    seem     to 
correspond  to  a  deep  difference  in  human  characters  ; 
it  is  doubtful  whether  a  man  could  be  found  anywhere 
whom  one  could  trust  to  hold  the  scales  evenly  between 
— let  us  say — Fdnelon  and  Bossuet.      The  cleavage  is 
much  the  same  as  that  which  causes  the  eternal  strife 
between  tradition  and  illumination,  between  priest  and 
prophet,  which  has  produced  the  deepest  tragedies  in 
human    history,   and  will  probably  continue  to  do  so 
while   the    world   lasts.      The   legalist — with   his    con- 
ception   of    God    as   the    righteous    Judge    dispensing 
rewards  and  punishments,  the  "  Great  Taskmaster  "  in 
whose    vineyard   we    are    ordered    to    labour ;    of   the 
Gospel  as  "  the  new  law,"  and  of  the  sanction  of  duty 
as  a  "  categorical  imperative  " — will  never  find  it  easy  to 
sympathise  with  those  whose  favourite  words  are  St. 
John's  triad — light,  life,  and  love,  and  who  find  these 
the  most  suitable  names  to  express  what  they  know  of 
the  nature  of  God.     But  those  to  whom   the   Fourth 
Gospel  is  the  brightest  jewel  in  the  Bible,  and  who  can 
enter  into  the  real  spirit  of  St.  Paul's  teaching,  will,  I 
hope,  be  able  to  take  some  interest  in   the  historical 
development  of  ideas  which  in  their  Christian  form  are 
certainly  built  upon  those  parts  of  the  New  Testament. 


LECTURE    II 


37 


"To  ev  ^Tjv  ioiSa^ev  eTnipavds  ws  5i5dffKa\os,  iVa  to  del  i'fjv  varepov  ws 
Oib^  xopvywv-"  Clement  ok  Alexandria. 

"But  souls  that  of  Ilis  own  good  life  partake 
He  loves  as  His  own  self:    dear  as  His  eye 
They  are  to  Him  ;    He'll  never  them  forsake  : 
When  they  shall  die,  then  God  Himself  shall  die  : 
They  live,  they  live  in  blest  eternity." 

Henry  More. 

"  Amor  Patris  Filiique, 
Par  amborum,  et  utrique 
Compar  et  consimilis : 
Cuncta  reples,  cuncta  foves, 
Astra  regis,  coelum  moves, 
Permanens  immobilis 

Te  docente  nil  obscurum, 
Te  pr^esente  nil  impurum  ; 

Sub  tua  praesentia 
Gloriatur  mens  iucunda ; 
Per  te  Iceta,  per  te  munda 

Gaudet  conscientia. 

Consolator  et  fundator, 
Habitator  et  amator 

Cordium  humilium  ; 
Pelle  mala,  terge  sordes, 
Et  discordes  fac  Concordes, 

Et  affer  presidium." 

Adam  of  St.  Victor 


S8 


LECTURE    II 

The  Mystical  Element  in  the  Bible 

"  That  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ;  to  the  end  that  ye, 
being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  may  be  strong  to  apprehend  with  all 
the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth,  and  to 
know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  may  be  filled 
with  all  the  fulness  of  God."— Eph.  iii.  17-19. 

The  task  which  now  Hes  before  me  is  to  consider  how 
far  that  type  of  rehgion  and  rehgious  philosophy,  which 
I  tried  in  my  last  Lecture  to  depict  in  outline,  is  re- 
presented in  and  sanctioned  by  Holy  Scripture.  I 
shall  devote  most  of  my  time  to  the  New  Testament, 
for  we  shall  not  find  very  much  to  help  us  in  the  Old. 
The  Jewish  mind  and  character,  in  spite  of  its  deeply 
Ireligious  bent,  was  alien  to  Mysticism.  In  the  first 
place,  the  religion  of  Israel,  passing  from  what  has 
been  called  Henotheism — the  worship  of  a  national 
God — to  true  Monotheism,  always  maintained  a  rigid 
notion  of  individuality,  both  human  and  Divine.  Even 
prophecy,  which  is  mystical  in  its  essence,  was  in  the 
early  period  conceived  as  unmystically  as  possible. 
Balaam  is  merely  a  mouthpiece  of  God  ;  his  message  is 
external  to  his  personality,  which  remains  antagonistic 
to  it.  And,  secondly,  the  Jewish  doctrine  of  ideas  was 
different  from  the  Platonic.  The  Jew  believed  that 
the  world,   and    the    whole   course  of  history,  existed 


40  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

from  all  eternity  in  the  mind  of  God,  but  as  an  un- 
realised purpose,  which  was  actualised  by  degrees  as 
the  scroll  of  events  was  unfurled.  There  was  no 
notion  that  the  visible  was  in  any  way  inferior  to  the 
invisible,  or  lacking  in  reality.  Even  in  its  later 
phases,  after  it  had  been  partially  Hellenised,  Jewish 
idealism  tended  to  crystallise  as  Chiliasm,  or  in  "  Apo- 
calypses," and  not,  like  Platonism,  in  the  dream  of  a 
perfect  world  existing  "  yonder."  In  fact,  the  Jewish 
view  of  the  external  world  was  mainly  that  of  naive 
realism,  but  strongly  pervaded  by  belief  in  an  Almighty 
King  and  Judge.  Moreover,  the  Jew  had  little  sense 
of  the  Divine  i7i  nature :  it  was  the  power  of  God  over 
nature  which  he  was  jealous  to  maintain.  The  majesty 
of  the  elemental  forces  was  extolled  in  order  to  magnify 
the  greater  power  of  Him  who  made  and  could 
unmake  them,  and  whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  can- 
not contain.  The  weakness  and  insignificance  of  man, 
as  contrasted  with  the  tremendous  power  of  God,  is 
the  reflection  which  the  contemplation  of  nature  gener- 
ally produced  in  his  mind.  "  How  can  a  man  be  just 
with  God  ?  "  asks  Job ;  "  which  removeth  the  mountains, 
and  they  know  it  not ;  when  He  overturneth  them  in 
His  anger ;  which  shaketh  the  earth  out  of  her  place, 
and  the  pillars  thereof  tremble ;  which  commandeth 
the  sun,  and  it  riseth  not,  and  sealeth  up  the  stars.  .  .  . 
He  is  not  a  man,  as  I  am,  that  I  should  answer  Him, 
that  we  should  come  together  in  judgment.  There  is 
no  daysman  betwixt  us,  that  might  lay  his  hand  upon 
us  both."  Nor  does  the  answer  that  came  to  Job 
out  of  the  whirlwind  give  any  hint  of  a  "  daysman  " 
betwixt  man  and   God,  but  only  enlarges  on  the  pre- 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     41 

sumption  of  man's  wishing  to  understand  the  counsels 
of  the  Almighty.  Absolute  submission  to  a  law  which 
is  entirely  outside  of  us  and  beyond  our  comprehen- 
sion, is  the  final  lesson  of  the  book.^  The  nation 
exhibited  the  merits  and  defects  of  this  type.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  showed  a  deep  sense  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  moral  law,  and  of  personal  responsibility  ;  a  stub- 
born independence  and  faith  in  its  mission  ;  and  a 
strong  national  spirit,  combined  with  vigorous  indi- 
viduality ;  but  with  these  virtues  went  a  tendency  to 
externalise  both  religion  and  the  ideal  of  well-being: 
the  former  became  a  matter  of  forms  and  ceremonies  ; 
the  latter,  of  worldly  possessions.  It  was  only  after 
the  collapse  of  the  national  polity  that  these  ideals 
became  transmuted  and  spiritualised.  Those  disasters, 
which  at  first  seemed  to  indicate  a  hopeless  estrange- 
ment between  God  and  His  people,  were  the  means  of 
a  deeper  reconciliation.  We  can  trace  the  process, 
from  the  old  proverb  that  "  to  see  God  is  death,"  down 
to  that  remarkable  passage  in  Jeremiah  where  the 
approaching  advent,  or  rather  restoration,  of  spiritual 
religion,  is  announced  with  all  the  solemnity  due  to  so 
glorious  a  message.  **  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house 
of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah.  .  .  .  After  those 
days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  My  law  in  their  inward 
parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts ;  and  I  will  be  their 
God,  and  they  shall  be  My  people.      And  they  shall  teach 

^  In  referring  thus  to  the  Book  of  Job,  I  rest  nothing  on  any  tlieory  as 
to  its  date.  Whenever  it  was  written,  it  illustrates  that  view  of  the  rela- 
tion of  man  to  God  with  which  Mysticism  can  never  be  content.  But,  of 
course,  the  antagonism  between  our  personal  claims  and  the  laws  of  the 
universe  must  be  done  justice  to  before  it  can  be  surmounted. 


42  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

no  more  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his 
brother,  saying.  Know  the  Lord  :  for  they  shall  all  know 
Me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them, 
saith  the  Lord."  ^  That  this  knowledge  of  God,  and  the 
assurance  of  blessedness  which  it  brings,  is  the  reward 
of  righteousness  and  purity,  is  the  chief  message  of  the 
great  prophets  and  psalmists.  "  Who  among  us  shall 
dwell  with  the  devouring  fire?  Who  among  us  shall 
dwell  with  everlasting  burnings  ?  He  that  walketh 
righteously,  and  speaketh  uprightly ;  he  that  despiseth 
the  gain  of  oppressions,  that  shaketh  his  hands  from 
holding  of  bribes,  that  stoppeth  his  ears  from  hearing 
of  blood,  and  shutteth  his  eyes  from  seeing  evil,  he 
shall  dwell  on  high ;  his  place  of  defence  shall  be  the 
munitions  of  rocks  :  bread  shall  be  given  unto  him  ;  his 
waters  shall  be  sure.  Thine  eyes  shall  see  the  King  in  His 
beauty  ;  they  shall  behold  the  land  that  is  very  far  off."  ^ 
This  passage  of  Isaiah  bears  a  very  close  resem- 
blance to  the  15th  and  24th  Psalms;  and  there  are 
many  other  psalms  which  have  been  dear  to  Christian 
mystics.  In  some  of  them  we  find  the  "  amoris  desi- 
derium  " — the  thirst  of  the  soul  for  God — which  is  the 
characteristic  note  of  mystical  devotion ;  in  others,  that 
longing  for  a  safe  refuge  from  the  provoking  of  all  men 
and  the  strife  of  tongues,  which  drove  so  many  saints 
into  the  cloister.  Many  a  solitary  ascetic  has  prayed 
in  the  words  of  the  73rd  Psalm:  "Whom  have  I  in 
heaven  but  Thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I 
desire  beside  Thee.  My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth  : 
but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion 
for  ever."      And  verses  like,  "  I  will  hearken  what  the 

^  Jer.  xxxi.  31-34.  ^  Isa.  xxxiii.  14-17. 


fs 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  BIBLE     43 

Lord  God  will  say  concerning  me,"  have  been  only  loo 
attractive  to  quietists.  Other  familiar  verses  will  occur 
to  most  of  us.  I  will  only  add  that  the  warm  faith 
and  love  which  inspired  these  psalms  is  made  more 
precious  by  the  reverence  for  law  which  is  part  of  the 
older  inheritance  of  the  Israelites. 

There  are  many,  I  fear,  to  whom  "  the  mystical 
element  in  the  Old  Testament"  will  suggest  only  the 
Cabbalistic  lore  of  types  and  allegories  which  has  been 
applied  to  all  the  canonical  books,  and  with  especial 
persistency  and  boldness  to  the  Song  of  Solomon.  I 
shall  give  my  opinion  upon  this  class  of  allegorism  in 
the  seventh  Lecture  of  this  course,  which  will  deal  with 
symbolism  as  a  branch  of  Mysticism.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  treat  of  it  here  without  anticipating  my 
discussion  of  a  principle  which  has  a  much  wider 
bearing  than  as  a  method  of  biblical  exegesis.  As  to 
the  Song  of  Solomon,  its  influence  upon  Christian 
Mysticism  has  been  simply  deplorable.  A  graceful 
romance  in  honour  of  true  love  was  distorted  into  a 
precedent  and  sanction  for  giving  way  to  hysterical 
emotions,  in  which  sexual  imagery  was  freely  used  to 
symbolise  the  relation  between  the  soul  and  its  Lord. 
Such  aberrations  are  as  alien  to  sane  Mysticism  as 
they  are  to  sane  exegesis.^ 

In  Jewish  writings  of  a  later  period,  composed  under 
Greek  influence,  we  find  plenty  of  Platonism  ready  to 
pass  into  Mysticism.  But  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon 
does  not  fall  within  our  subject,  and  what  is  necessary 
to  be  said  about  Philo  and  Alexandria  will  be  said  in 
the  next  Lecture. 

'  See  Appendix  D,  on  the  devotional  use  of  the  Song  of  Solomon. 


44  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

In  the  New  Testament,  it  will  be  convenient  to  say 
a  very  few  words  on  the  Synoptic  Gospels  first,  and 
afterwards  to  consider  St.  John  and  St.  Paul,  where  we 
shall  find  most  of  our  material. 

The  first  three  Gospels  are  not  written  in  the 
religious  dialect  of  Mysticism.  It  is  all  the  more 
important  to  notice  that  the  fundamental  doctrines  on 
which  the  system  (if  we  may  call  it  a  system)  rests, 
are  all  found  in  them.  The  vision  of  God  is  promised 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  promised  only  to 
those  who  are  pure  in  heart.  The  indwelling  presence 
of  Christ,  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  taught  in  several 
places  ;  for  instance — "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within 
you  " ;  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them  " ;  "  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
The  unity  of  Christ  and  His  members  is  implied  by  the 
words,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  to  one  of  the 
least  of  these  My  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  Me." 
Lastly,  the  great  law  of  the  moral  world, — the  law  of 
g^iin  through  loss,  of  life  through  death, — which  is  the 
corner-stone  of  mystical  (and,  many  have  said,  of 
Christian)  ethics,  is  found  in  the  Synoptists  as  well  as 
in  St.  John.  "  Whosoever  shall  seek  to  gain  his  life 
(or  soul)  shall  lose  it ;  but  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life 
(or  soul)  shall  preserve  it." 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John — the  "  spiritual  Gospel,"  as 
Clement  already  calls  it — is  the  charter  of  Christian 
Mysticism.  Indeed,  Christian  Mysticism,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  might  almost  be  called  Johannine  Christianity; 
if  it  were  not  better  to  say  that  a  Johannine  Christianity 
is   the    ideal   which    the   Christian    mystic    sets  before 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  BIBLE     45 

himself.  For  we  cannot  but  feel  that  there  are  deeper 
truths  in  this  wonderful  Gospel  than  have  yet  become 
part  of  the  religious  consciousness  of  mankind.  Per- 
haps, as  Origen  says,  no  one  can  fully  understand  it 
who  has  not,  like  its  author,  lain  upon  the  breast  of 
Jesus.  We  are  on  holy  ground  when  we  are  dealing 
with  St.  John's  Gospel,  and  must  step  in  fear  and 
reverence.  But  though  the  breadth  and  depth  and 
height  of  those  sublime  discourses  are  for  those  only 
who  can  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles  to  the  summits 
of  the  spiritual  life,  so  simple  is  the  language  and  so 
large  its  scope,  that  even  the  wayfaring  men,  though 
fools,  can  hardly  altogether  err  therein. 

Let  us  consider  briefly,  first,  what  we  learn  from 
this  Gospel  about  the  nature  of  God,  and  then  its 
teaching  upon  human  salvation. 

There  are  three  notable  expressions  about  God  the 
Father  in  the  Gospel  and  First  Epistle  of  St.  John : 
"  God  is  Love  " ;  "  God  is  Light  "  ;  and  "  God  is 
Spirit."  The  form  of  the  sentences  teaches  us  that 
these  three  qualities  belong  so  intimately  to  the  nature 
of  God  that  they  usher  us  into  His  immediate  presence. 
We  need  not  try  to  get  behind  them,  or  to  rise  above 
them  into  some  more  nebulous  region  in  our  search 
for  the  Absolute.  Love,  Light,  and  Spirit  are  for  us 
names  of  God  Himself.  And  observe  that  St.  John 
does  not,  in  applying  these  semi-abstract  words  to 
God,  attenuate  in  the  slightest  degree  His  personality. 
God  is  Love,  but  He  also  exercises  love.  "  God  so 
loved  the  world."  And  He  is  not  only  the  "  white 
radiance  "  that  "  for  ever  shines  "  ;  He  can  "  draw  "  us  to 
Himself,  and  "  send  "  His  Son  to  bring  us  back  to  Him. 


46  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

The  word  "  Logos  "  does  not  occur  in  any  of  the 
discourses.  The  identification  of  Christ  with  the 
"  Word  "  or  "  Reason "  of  the  philosophers  is  St. 
John's  own.  But  the  statements  in  the  prologue  are 
all  confirmed  by  our  Lord's  own  words  as  reported 
by  the  evangelist.  These  fall  under  two  heads,  those 
which  deal  with  the  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Father, 
and  those  which  deal  with  His  relation  to  the  world. 
The  pre-existence  of  Christ  in  glory  at  the  right  hand 
of  God  is  proved  by  several  declarations  :  "  What  if  ye 
shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascending  where  He  was 
before  ? "  "  And  now,  O  Father,  glorify  Me  with 
Thine  own  self,  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee 
before  the  world  was."  His  exaltation  above  time  is 
shown  by  the  solemn  statement,  "  Before  Abraham 
was,  I  am."  And  with  regard  to  the  world,  we  find  in 
St.  John  the  very  important  doctrine,  which  has  never 
made  its  way  into  popular  theology,  that  the  Word  is 
not  merely  the  Instrument  in  the  original  creation, — 
"  by  (or  through)  Him  all  things  were  made," — but  the 
central  Life,  the  Being  in  whom  life  existed  and  exists 
as  an  indestructible  attribute,  an  underived  prerogat- 
ive,^ the  Mind  or  Wisdom  who  upholds  and  animates 
the  universe  without  being  lost  in  it.  This  doctrine, 
which  is  implied  in  other  parts  of  St.  John,  seems  to  be 
stated  explicitly  in  the  prologue,  though  the  words 
have  been  otherwise  interpreted.  "  That  which  has 
come  into  existence,"  says  St.  John,  "was  in  Him  life" 
(o  ye'yovev,  iv  avrw  ^cor)  rjv).  That  is  to  say,  the  Word 
is  the  timeless  Life,  of  which  the  temporal  world  is  a 
manifestation.      This  doctrine  was  taught  by  many  of 

*  Leathes,  T/ie  Witness  of  St.  John  to  Christ,  p.  244. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     47 

the  Greek  Fathers,  as  well  as  by  Scotus  Erigena  and 
other  speculative  mystics.  Even  if,  with  the  school  of 
Antioch  and  most  of  the  later  commentators,  we 
transfer  the  words  o  yeyouev  to  the  preceding  sentence, 
the  doctrine  that  Christ  is  the  life  as  well  as  the  light 
of  the  world  can  be  proved  from  St.  John.^  The 
world  is  the  poem  of  the  Word  to  the  glory  of  the 
Father  :  in  it,  and  by  means  of  it.  He  displays  in  time 
all  the  riches  which  God  has  eternally  put  within 
Him. 

In  St.  John,  as  in  mystical  theology  generally,  the 
Incarnation,  rather  than  the  Cross,  is  the  central  fact  of 
Christianity.     "  The  Word  was   made  flesh,  and  taber- 

'  The  punctuation'  now  generally  adopted  was  invented  (probably)  by  the 
Antiochenes,  who  were  afraid  that  the  words  "  without  Him  was  not  any- 
thing made "  might,  if  unqualified,  be  taken  to  include  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Cyril  of  Alexandria  comments  on  the  older  punctuation,  but  explains  the 
verse  wrongly.  "The  Word,  as  Life  by  nature,  was  in  the  things  which 
have  become,  mingling  Himself  by  participation  in  the  things  that  are." 
Bp.  Westcott  objects  to  this,  that  "the  one  life  is  regarded  as  dispersed." 
Cyril,  however,  guards  against  this  misconception  (ov  Kara  fiepia/xdv  rtva  Kal 
dWoioiaiv).  He  says  that  created  things  share  in  "  the  one  life  as  they  are 
able."  But  some  of  his  expressions  are  objectionable,  as  they  seem  to 
assume  a  material  substratum,  animated  ad  extra  by  an  infusion  of  the 
Logos.  Augustine's  commentary  on  the  verse  is  based  on  the  well-known 
passage  of  Plato's  Republic  about  the  "  ideal  bed."  "Area  in  opere  non 
est  vita ;  area  in  arte  vita  est.  Sic  Sapientia  Dei,  per  quam  facta  sunt 
omnia,  secundum  artem  continet  omnia  antequam  fabricat  omnia.  Quse 
fiunt  .  .  .  foris  corpora  sunt,  in  arte  vita  sunt."  Those  who  accept  the 
common  authorship  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Apocalypse  will  find  a  confirma- 
tion of  the  view  that  %v  refers  to  ideal,  extra-temporal  existence,  in  Rev, 
iv.  II  :  "Thou  hast  created  all  things,  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  were 
{J]ijav  is  the  true  reading)  and  were  created."  There  is  also  a  very 
interesting  passage  in  Eusebius  {Pnvp.  Ev.  xi.  19):  *:ai  oStos  &pa  rji>  6 
\6yos  Kad'  6v  del  Hivra  rd  yiyvbfxeva  eyivero,  ibawep  'Hpct/iXetros  hv  d^Lucrete. 
This  is  so  near  to  the  words  of  St.  John's  prologue  as  to  suggest  that  the 
apostle,  writing  at  Ephesus,  is  here  referring  deliberately  to  the  lofty 
doctrine  of  the  great  Ephesian  Idealist,  whom  Justin  claims  as  a  Christian 
before  Christ,  and  whom  Clement  quotes  several  times  with  respect. 


48  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

nacled  among  us,"  is  for  him  the  supreme  dogma. 
And  it  follows  necessarily  from  the  Logos  doctrine, 
that  the  Incarnation,  and  all  that  followed  it,  is  re- 
garded primarily  as  a  revelation  of  life  and  light  and 
truth.  "  That  eternal  life,  which  was  with  the  Father, 
has  been  manifested  unto  us,"  is  part  of  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  first  Epistle.^  "  This  is  the  message 
which  we  have  heard  of  Him  and  announce  unto  you, 
that  God  is  Light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all." 
In  coming  into  the  world,  Christ  "  came  unto  His 
own."  He  had,  in  a  sense,  only  to  show  to  them  what 
was  there  already :  Esaias,  long  before,  had  "  seen  His 
glory,  and  spoken  of  Him."  The  mysterious  estrange- 
ment, which  had  laid  the  world  under  the  dominion  of 
the  Prince  of  darkness,  had  obscured  but  not  quenched 
the  light  which  lighteth  every  man — the  inalienable 
prerogative  of  all  who  derive  their  being  from  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness.  This  central  Light  is  Christ,  and 
Christ  only.  He  alone  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the 
Life,  the  Door,  the  Living  Bread,  and  the  True  Vine. 
He  is  at  once  the  Revealer  and  the  Revealed,  the 
Guide  and  the  Way,  the  Enlightener  and  the  Light. 
No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Him. 

The  teaching  of  this  Gospel  on  the  office  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  claims  special  attention  in  our  present 
inquiry.  The  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  was  com- 
plete :  there  can  be  no  question  that  St.  John  claims 
for  Christianity  the  position  of  the  one  eternally  true 
revelation.  But  without  the  gradual  illumination  of 
the  Spirit   it   is  partly  unintelligible  and  partly  unob- 

^  It  will  be  seen  that  I  assume  that  the  first  Epistle  is  the  work  of  the 
evangelist. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     49 

served.^  The  purpose  of  the  Incarnation  was  to  reveal 
God  tJie  Father :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  In  these  momentous  words  (it  has  been 
said)  "  the  idea  of  God  receives  an  abiding  embodi- 
ment, and  the  Father  is  brought  for  ever  within  the 
reach  of  intelligent  devotion."  ^  The  purpose  of  the 
mission  of  the  Comforter  is  to  reveal  the  Son.  He 
takes  the  place  of  the  ascended  Christ  on  earth  as  a 
living  and  active  principle  in  the  hearts  of  Christians. 
His  office  it  is  to  bring  to  remembrance  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  and  to  help  mankind  gradually  to  understand 
them.  There  were  also  many  things,  our  Lord  said, 
which  could  not  be  said  at  the  time  to  His  disciples, 
who  were  unable  to  bear  them.  These  were  left  to  be 
communicated  to  future  generations  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  doctrine  of  development  had  never  before 
received  so  clear  an  expression  ;  and  few  could  venture 
to  record  it  so  clearly  as  St.  John,  who  could  not  be 
suspected  of  contemplating  a  time  when  the  teachings 
of  the  human  Christ  might  be  superseded. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  human  side  of  salvation,  and 
trace  the  upward  path  of  the  Christian  life  as  presented 
to  us  in  this  Gospel.  First,  then,  we  have  the  doctrine 
of  the  new  birth :  "  Except  a  man  be  born  anew  (or, 
from  above),  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
This  is  further  explained  as  a  being  born  "  of  water 
and  of  the  Spirit " — words  which  are  probably  meant 
to  remind  us  of  the  birth  of  the  world-order  out  of 
chaos  as  described  in  Genesis,  and  also  to  suggest  the 
two  ideas  of  purification  and  life,  (Baptism,  as  a 
symbol  of  purification,  was,  of  course,  already  familiar 
^  Westcolt  on  John  xiv.  26.  ^  Westcott. 

4 


50  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

to  those  who  first  heard  the  words.)  Then  we  have  a 
doctrine  oi  faith  which  is  deeper  than  that  of  the 
Synoptists.  The  very  expression  Tnarevetv  et'?,  "  to 
believe  on,"  common  in  St.  John  and  rare  elsewhere, 
shows  that  the  word  is  taking  a  new  meaning.  Faith, 
in  St.  John,  is  no  longer  regarded  chiefly  as  a  condition 
of  supernatural  favours  ;  or,  rather,  the  mountains 
which  it  can  remove  are  no  material  obstructions. 
It  is  an  act  of  the  whole  personality,  a  self-dedication 
to  Christ.  It  must  precede  knowledge :  "  If  any 
man  willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
teaching,"  is  the  promise.  It  is  the  "credo  ut  intelligam" 
of  later  theology.  The  objection  has  been  raised  that 
St.  John's  teaching  about  faith  moves  in  a  vicious 
circle.  His  appeal  is  to  the  inward  witness ;  and 
those  who  cannot  hear  this  inward  witness  are  informed 
that  they  must  first  believe,  which  is  just  what  they  can 
find  no  reason  for  doing.  But  this  criticism  misses 
altogether  the  drift  of  St.  John's  teaching.  Faith,  for 
him,  is  not  the  acceptance  of  a  proposition  upon 
evidence;  still  less  is  it  the  acceptance  of  a  proposi- 
tion in  the  teeth  of  evidence.  It  is,  in  the  first 
instance,  the  resolution  "  to  stand  or  fall  by  the  noblest 
hypothesis  " ;  that  is  (may  we  not  say  ?),  to  follow 
Christ  wherever  He  may  lead  us.  Faith  begins  with 
an  experiment,  and  ends  with  an  experience.^  "  He 
that  believeth  in  Him  hath  the  witness  in  himself"; 
that  is  the  verification  which  follows  the  venture.  That 
even  the  power  to  make  the  experiment  is  given  from 

^  Cf.  Theologia  Germamca,  chap.  48  :  "  He  who  would  know  before  he 
believeth  cometh  never  to  true  knowledge.  .  .  .  I  speak  of  a  certain  truth 
which  it  is  possible  to  know  by  experience,  but  which  ye  must  believe  in 
before  ye  know  it  by  experience,  else  ye  will  never  come  to  know  it  truly." 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE      51 

above ;  and  that  the  experience  is  not  merely  subject- 
ive, but  an  universal  law  which  has  had  its  supreme 
vindication  in  history, — these  are  two  facts  which 
we  learn  afterwards.  The  converse  process,  which 
begins  with  a  critical  examination  of  documents,  can- 
not establish  what  we  really  want  to  know,  however 
strong  the  evidence  may  be.  In  this  sense,  and  in  this 
only,  are  Tennyson's  words  true,  that  "  nothing  worthy 
proving  can  be  proven,  nor  yet  disproven." 

Faith,  thus  defined,  is  hardly  distinguishable  from 
that  mixture  of  admiration,  hope,  and  love  by  which 
Wordsworth  says  that  we  live.  Love  especially  is 
intimately  connected  with  faith.  And  as  the  Christian 
life  is  to  be  considered  as,  above  all  things,  a  state  of 
union  with  Christ,  and  of  His  members  with  one 
another,  love  of  the  brethren  is  inseparable  from 
love  of  God.  So  intimate  is  this  union,  that  hatred 
towards  any  human  being  cannot  exist  in  the  same 
heart  as  love  to  God.  The  mystical  union  is  indeed 
rather  a  bond  between  Christ  and  the  Church,  and 
between  man  and  man  as  members  of  Christ,  than 
between  Christ  and  individual  souls.  Our  Lord's 
prayer  is  "  that  they  all  may  be  one,  even  as  Thou, 
Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may 
be  one  in  us."  The  personal  relation  between  the  soul 
and  Christ  is  not  to  be  denied  ;  but  it  can  only  be 
enjoyed  when  the  person  has  "come  to  himself"  as  a 
member  of  a  body.  This  involves  an  inward  transit 
from  the  false  isolated  self  to  the  larger  life  of 
sympathy  and  love  which  alone  makes  us  persons. 
Those  who  are  thus  living  according  to  their  true 
nature  are  rewarded  with  an  intense  unshakeable  con- 


52  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

viction  which  makes  them  independent  of  external 
evidences.  Like  the  bHnd  man  who  was  healed,  they 
can  say,  "  One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was 
blind,  now  I  see."  The  words  "  we  know  "  are  repeated 
again  and  again  in  the  first  Epistle,  with  an  emphasis 
which  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  evangelist 
was  willing  to  throw  the  main  weight  of  his  belief  on 
this  inner  assurance,  and  to  attribute  it  without  hesita- 
tion to  the  promised  presence  of  the  Comforter.  We 
must  observe,  however,  that  this  knowledge  or  illumina- 
tion is  progressive.  This  is  proved  by  the  passages 
already  quoted  about  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
is  also  implied  by  the  words,  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that 
they  should  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  Eternal  life  is  not 
7i/wo-i9,  knowledge  as  a  possession,  but  the  state  of 
acquiring  knowledge  (tW  f^v^v^cTKtoaiv).  It  is  significant, 
I  think,  that  St.  John,  who  is  so  fond  of  the  verb  "  to 
know,"  never  uses  the  substantive  'yvooai'^. 

The  state  of  progressive  unification,  in  which  we"* 
receive  "  grace  upon  grace,"  as  we  learn  more  and 
more  of  the  "  fulness "  of  Christ,  is  called  by  the 
evangelist,  in  the  verse  just  quoted  and  elsewhere, 
eternal  life.  This  life  is  generally  spoken  of  as  a 
present  possession  rather  than  a  future  hope.  "  He  / 
that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life  "  ;  "  he 
is  passed  irom  death  unto  life";  "we  are  in  Him  that 
is  true,  even  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  true  God,  and 
eternal  life."  The  evangelist  is  constantly  trying  to 
transport  us  into  that  timeless  region  in  which  one 
day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as 
one  day. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN   THE  BIBLE      53 

St.  John's  Mysticism  is  thus  patent  to  all ;  it  is 
stamped  upon  his  very  style,  and  pervades  all  his 
teaching.  Commentators  who  are  in  sympathy  with 
this  mode  of  thought  have,  as  we  might  expect,  made 
the  most  of  this  element  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  Indeed, 
some  of  them,  I  cannot  but  think,  have  interpreted  it 
so  completely  in  the  terms  of  their  own  idealism,  that 
they  have  disregarded  or  explained  away  the  very 
important  qualifications  which  distinguish  the  Johannine 
theology  from  some  later  mystical  systems.  Fichte, 
for  example,  claims  St.  John  as  a  supporter  of  his 
system  of  subjective  idealism  (if  that  is  a  correct 
description  of  it),  and  is  driven  to  some  curious  bits 
of  exegesis  in  his  attempt  to  justify  this  claim.  And 
Reuss  (to  give  one  example  of  his  method)  says  that 
St.  John  cannot  have  used  "  the  last  day "  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  "  because  mystical  theology  has  nothing 
to  do  with  such  a  notion."  ^  He  means,  I  suppose, 
that  the  mystic,  who  likes  to  speak  of  heaven  as  a 
state,  and  of  eternal  life  as  a  present  'possession,  has 
no  business  to  talk  about  future  judgment.  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  this  is  a  very  grave  mistake.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  those  who  believe  space  and  time 
to  be  only  forms  of  our  thought,  must  regard  the 
traditional  eschatology  as  symbolical.  We  are  not 
concerned  to  maintain  that  there  will  be,  literally,  a 
great  assize,  holden  at  a  date  and  place  which  could 
be  announced  if  we  knew  it.  If  that  is  all  that  Reuss 
means,  perhaps  he  is  right  in  saying  that  "  mystical 
theology  has  nothing  to  do  with  such  a  notion."      But 

*  On  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  cf.  John  v.  25,  xxi.  23  ;  i  John  ii.  28, 
iii.  2.     Scholten  goes  so  far  as  to  expunge  v.  25  and  28,  29  as  spurious. 


54  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

if  he  means  that  such  expressions  as  those  referred  to 
in  St.  John,  about  eternal  life  as  something  here  and 
now,  imply  that  judgment  is  now,  and  therefore  not  in 
the  fiiture,  he  is  attributing  to  the  evangelist,  and  to 
the  whole  array  of  religious  thinkers  who  have  used 
similar  expressions,  a  view  which  is  easy  enough  to 
understand,  but  which  is  destitute  of  any  value,  for  it 
entirely  fails  to  satisfy  the  religious  consciousness. 
The  feeling  of  the  contrast  between  what  ought  to  be 
and  what  is,  is  one  of  the  deepest  springs  of  faith  in 
the  unseen.  It  can  only  be  ignored  by  shutting  our 
eyes  to  half  the  facts  of  life.  It  is  easy  to  say  with 
Browning,  "  God's  in  His  heaven :  all's  right  with  the 
world,"  or  with  Emerson,  that  justice  is  not  deferred, 
and  that  everyone  gets  exactly  his  deserts  in  this 
life ;  but  it  would  require  a  robust  confidence  or  a 
hard  heart  to  maintain  these  propositions  while  stand- 
ing among  the  ruins  of  an  Armenian  village,  or  by  the 
deathbed  of  innocence  betrayed.  There  is  no  doubt 
a  sense  in  which  it  may  be  said  that  the  ideal  is  the 
actual ;  but  only  when  we  have  risen  in  thought  to 
a  region  above  the  antitheses  of  past,  present,  and 
future,  where  "  is "  denotes,  not  the  moment  which 
passes  as  we  speak,  but  the  everlasting  Now  in  the 
mind  of  God.  This  is  not  a  region  in  which  human 
thought  can  live ;  and  the  symbolical  eschatology  of 
religion  supplies  us  with  forms  in  which  it  is  possible 
to  think.  The  basis  of  the  belief  in  future  judgment 
is  that  deep  conviction  of  the  rationality  of  the  world- 
order,  or,  in  religious  language,  of  the  wisdom  and 
justice  of  God,  which  we  cannot  and  will  not  surrender. 
It  is   authenticated   by  an   instinctive  assurance  which 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE   BIBLE      55 

is  strongest  in  the  strongest  minds,  and  which  has 
nothing  to  do  with  any  desire  for  spurious  "  consola- 
tions " ;  1  it  is  a  conviction,  not  merely  a  hope,  and  we 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  part  of  the 
Divine  element  in  our  nature.  This  conviction,  like 
other  mystical  intuitions,  is  formless :  the  forms  or 
symbols  under  which  we  represent  it  are  the  best  that 
we  can  get.  They  are,  as  Plato  says,  "  a  raft "  on 
which  we  may  navigate  strange  seas  of  thought  far 
out  of  our  depth.  We  may  use  them  freely,  as  if  they 
were  literally  true,  only  remembering  their  symbolical 
character  when  they  bring  us  into  conflict  with  natural 
science,  or  when  they  tempt  us  to  regard  the  world  of 
experience  as  something  undivine  or  unreal. 

It  is  important  to  insist  on  this  point,  because  the 
extreme  difficulty  (or  rather  impossibility)  of  deter- 
mining the  true  relations  of  becoming  and  being,  of 
time  and  eternity,  is  constantly  tempting  us  to  adopt 
some  facile  solution  which  really  destroys  one  of  the 
two  terms.  The  danger  which  besets  us  if  we  follow 
the  line  of  thought  natural  to  speculative  Mysticism,  is 
that  we  may  think  we  have  solved  the  problem  in 
one  of  two  ways,  neither  of  which  is  a  solution  at  all. 
Either  we  may  sublimate  our  notion  of  spirit  to  such 
an  extent  that  our  idealism  becomes  merely  a  senti- 
mental way  of  looking  at  the  actual ;  or,  by  paring 
down  the  other  term  in  the  relation,  we  may  fall  into 

^  The  allegation  that  the  Christian  persuades  himself  of  a  future  life 
because  it  is  the  most  comfortable  belief  to  hold,  seems  to  me  utterly 
contemptible.  Certain  views  about  heaven  and  hell  are  no  doubt  traceable 
to  shallow  optimism  ;  but  the  belief  in  immortality  is  in  itself  rather  awful 
than  consoling.  Besides,  what  sane  man  would  wish  to  be  deceived  in 
such  a  matter  ? 


56  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

that  spurious  idealism  which  reduces  this  world  to  a 
vain  shadow  having  no  relation  to  reality.  We  shall 
come  across  a  good  deal  of  "  acosmistic "  philosophy 
in  our  survey  of  Christian  Platonism  ;  and  the  senti- 
mental rationalist  is  with  us  in  the  nineteenth  century ; 
but  neither  of  the  two  has  any  right  to  appeal  to  St. 
John.  Fond  as  he  is  of  the  present  tense,  he  will  not 
allow  us  to  blot  from  the  page  either  "  unborn  to- 
morrow or  dead  yesterday."  We  have  seen  that  he 
records  the  use  by  our  Lord  of  the  traditional  language 
about  future  judgment.  What  is  even  more  important, 
he  asserts  in  the  strongest  possible  manner,  at  the 
outset  both  of  his  Gospel  and  Epistle,  the  necessity 
of  remembering  that  the  Christian  revelation  was 
conveyed  by  certain  historical  events.  "  The  Word 
was  made  flesh,  and  tabernacled  among  us,  and  we 
have  seen  His  glory."  "  That  which  was  from  the 
beginning,  that  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we 
have  seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld,  and 
our  hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word  of  Life  .  .  . 
that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto 
you."  And  again  in  striking  words  he  lays  it  down  as 
the  test  whereby  we  may  distinguish  the  spirit  of 
truth  from  Antichrist  or  the  spirit  of  error,  that  the 
latter  "  confesseth  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the 
flesh."  The  later  history  of  Mysticism  shows  that  this 
warning  was  very  much  needed.  The  tendency  of  the 
mystic  is  to  regard  the  Gospel  history  as  only  one 
striking  manifestation  of  an  universal  law.  Pie  believes 
that  every  Christian  who  is  in  the  way  of  salvation 
recapitulates  "  the  whole  process  of  Christ  "  (as  William 
Law  calls  it) — that  he  has  his  miraculous  birth,  inward 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE      57 

death,  and  resurrection  ;  and  so  the  Gospel  history 
becomes  for  the  Gnostic  (as  Clement  calls  the  Christian 
philosopher)  little  more  than  a  dramatisation  of  the 
normal  psychological  experience.^  "  Christ  crucified 
is  teaching  for  babes,"  says  Origen,  with  startling 
audacity ;  and  heretical  mystics  have  often  fancied 
thatTthey  can  rise  above  the  Son  to  the  Father,  The 
Gospel  and  Epistle  of  St.  John  stand  like  a  rock 
against  this  fatal  error,  and  in  this  feature  some  German 
critics  have  rightly  discerned  their  supreme  value  to 
mystical  theology.^  "  In  all  life,"  says  Grau,  "  there  is 
not  an  abstract  unity,  but  an  unity  in  plurality,  an 
outward  and  inward,  a  bodily  and  spiritual ;  and  life, 
like  love,  unites  what  science  and  philosophy  separate." 
This  co-operation  of  the  sensible  and  spiritual,  of  the 
material  and  ideal,  of  the  historical  and  eternal,  is 
maintained  throughout  by  St.  John.  "  His  view  is 
mystical,"  says  Grau,  "  because  all  life  is  mystical."  It 
is  true  that  the  historical  facts  hold,  for  St.  John,  a 
subordinate  place  as  evidences.  His  main  proof  is,  as 
I  have  said,  experimental.  But  a  spiritual  revelation 
of  God  without  its  physical  counterpart,  an  Incarna- 
tion, is  for  him  an  impossibility,  and  a  Christianity 
which  has  cut  itself  adrift  from  the  Galilean  ministry 
is  in  his  eyes  an  imposture.  In  no  other  writer,  I 
think,  do  we  find    so    firm    a    grasp   of  the  "  psycho- 

^  Henry  More  brings  this  charge  against  the  Quakers.  There  are,  he 
says,  many  good  and  wholesome  things  in  their  teaching,  but  they 
mingle  with  them  a  "  slighting  of  the  history  of  Christ,  and  making  a  mere 
allegory  of  it — tending  to  the  utter  overthrow  of  that  warrantable,  though 
more  external  frame  of  Christianity,  which  Scripture  itself  points  out  to 
us"  (Mastix,  his  letter  to  a  Friend,  p.  306). 

*  E.g.  Strauss  and  Grau,  quoted  in  Lilienfeld's  Thoughts  on  the  Social 
Science  of  the  Future, 


58  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

physical "  view  of  life  which  we  all  feel  to  be  the  true 
one,  if  only  we  could  put  it  in  an  intelligible  form.^ 

There  is  another  feature  in  St.  John's  Gospel  which 
shows  his  affinity  to  Mysticism,  though  of  a  different 
kind  from  that  which  we  have  been  considering.  I 
mean  his  fondness  for  using  visible  things  and  events 
as  symbols.  This  objective  kind  of  Mysticism  will 
form  the  subject  of  my  last  two  Lectures,  and  I  will 
here  only  anticipate  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  belief 
which  underlies  it  is  that  "  everything,  in  being  what 
it  is,  is  symbolic  of  something  more."  The  Fourth 
Gospel  is  steeped  in  symbolism  of  this  kind.  The 
eight  miracles  which  St.  John  selects  are  obviously 
chosen  for  their  symbolic  value ;  indeed,  he  seems  to 
regard  them  mainly  as  acted  parables.  His  favourite 
word    for   miracles   is    o-T/^eta,   "  signs "   or   "  symbols." 

^  The  intense  moral  dualism  of  St.  John  has  been  felt  by  many  as  a 
discordant  note  ;  and  though  it  is  not  closely  connected  with  his  Mysticism, 
a  few  words  should  perhaps  be  added  about  it.  It  has  been  thought 
strange  that  the  Logos,  who  is  the  life  of  all  things  that  are,  should  have 
to  invade  His  own  kingdom  to  rescue  it  from  its  de  facto  ruler,  the  Prince 
of  darkness ;  and  stranger  yet,  that  the  bulk  of  mankind  should  seemingly 
be  "children  of  the  devil,"  born  of  the  flesh,  and  incapable  of  salvation. 
The  difficulty  exists,  but  it  has  been  exaggerated.  St.  John  does  not 
touch  either  the  metaphysical  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil,  or  predestina- 
tion in  the  Calvinistic  sense.  The  vivid  contrasts  of  light  and  shade  in 
his  picture  express  his  judgment  on  the  tragic  fate  of  the  Jewish  people. 
The  Gospel  is  not  a  polemical  treatise,  but  it  bears  traces  of  recent  con- 
flicts. St.  John  wishes  to  show  that  the  rejection  of  Christ  by  the  Jews 
was  morally  inevitable ;  that  their  blindness  and  their  ruin  followed 
naturally  from  their  characters  and  principles.  Looking  back  on  the 
memories  of  a  long  life,  he  desires  to  trace  the  operation  of  uniform  laws 
in  dividing  the  wheat  of  humanity  from  the  chaff".  He  is  content  to 
observe  how  r\Bo%  dj-^puiTry  5al/j,(i)v,  without  speculating  on  the  reason  why 
characters  differ.  In  offering  these  remarks,  I  am  assuming,  what  seems  to 
me  quite  certain,  that  St.  John  selected  from  our  Lord's  discourses  those 
which  suited  his  particular  object,  and  that  in  the  setting  and  arrangement 
he  allowed  himself  a  certain  amount  of  liberty. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE      59 

It  is  true  that  he  also  calls  them  "  works,"  but  this  is 
not  to  distinguish  them  as  supernatural.  All  Christ's 
actions  are  "  works,"  as  parts  of  His  one  "  work."  As 
evidences  of  His  Divinity,  such  "  works "  are  inferior 
to  His  "  words,"  being  symbolic  and  external.  Only 
those  who  cannot  believe  on  the  evidence  of  the  words 
and  their  echo  in  the  heart,  may  strengthen  their  weak 
faith  by  the  miracles.  But  "  blessed  are  they  who 
have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed."  And  besides 
these  "  signs,"  we  have,  in  place  of  the  Synoptic  parables, 
a  wealth  of  allegories,  in  which  Christ  is  symbolised  as 
the  Bread  of  Life,  the  Light  of  the  World,  the  Door 
of  the  Sheep,  the  good  Shepherd,  the  Way,  and  the 
true  Vine.  Wind  and  water  are  also  made  to  play 
their  part.  Moreover,  there  is  much  unobtrusive 
symbolism  in  descriptive  phrases,  as  when  he  says  that 
Nicodemus  came  by  night,  that  Judas  went  out  into 
the  night,  and  that  blood  and  water  flowed  from  our 
Lord's  side ;  and  the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet  was 
a  symbolic  act  which  the  disciples  were  to  understand 
hereafter.  Thus  all  things  in  the  world  may  remind  us 
of  Him  who  made  them,  and  who  is  their  sustaining  life. 
In  treating  of  St.  John,  it  was  necessary  to  protest 
against  the  tendency  of  some  commentators  to  inter- 
pret him  simply  as  a  speculative  mystic  of  the 
Alexandrian  type.  But  when  we  turn  to  St.  Paul, 
we  find  reason  to  think  that  this  side  of  his  theology 
has  been  very  much  underestimated,  and  that  the 
distinctive  features  of  Mysticism  are  even  more  marked 
in  him  than  in  St.  John.  This  is  not  surprising,  for 
our  blessed  Lord's  discourses,  in  which  nearly  all  the 
doctrinal  teaching  of  St.  John  is  contained,  are  for  all 


6o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Christians ;  they  rise  above  the  oppositions  which 
must  always  divide  human  thought  and  human  thinkers. 
In  St.  Paul,  large-minded  as  he  was,  and  inspired  as  we 
believe  him  to  be,  we  may  be  allowed  to  see  an  example 
of  that  particular  type  which  we  are  considering. 

St.  Paul  states  in  the  clearest  manner  that  Christ 
appeared  to  him,  and  that  this  revelation  was  the 
foundation  of  his  Christianity  and  apostolic  com- 
mission. "  Neither  did  I  receive  the  Gospel  from 
man,"  ^  he  says,  "  nor  was  I  taught  it,  but  it  came  to 
me  through  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."  It  appears 
that  he  did  not  at  first  ^  think  it  necessary  to  "  confer 
with  flesh  and  blood  " — to  collect  evidence  about  our 
Lord's  ministry.  His  death  and  resurrection  ;  he  had 
"seen"  and  felt  Him,  and  that  was  enough.  "  It  was 
the  good  pleasure  of  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,"  ^  he 
says  simpl)^,  using  the  favourite  mystical  phraseology. 
The  study  of  "  evidences,"  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  term 
in  apologetics,  he  rejects  with  distrust  and  contempt.^ 
External  revelation  cannot  make  a  man  religious.  It 
can  put  nothing  new  into  him.  If  there  is  nothing 
answering  to  it  in  his  mind,  it  will  profit  him  nothing. 
Nor  can  philosophy  make  a  man  religious.  "  Man's 
wisdom,"  "  the  wisdom  of  the  world,"  is  of  no  avail 
to  find  spiritual  truth.  "  God  chose  the  foolish  things 
of  the  world,  to  put  to  shame  them  that  are  wise." 
"  The  word  of  the  Cross  is,  to  them  that  are  perishing, 
foolishness."  By  this  language  he,  of  course,  does  not 
mean  that  Christianity  is  irrational,  and  therefore  to 

1  Gal.  i.  12. 

^  I  Cor.  XV.  shows  that  he  subsequently  satisfied  himself  of  the  tnith  of 
the  other  Christophanies. 

^  Gal.  i.  15,  16,  *  I  Cor.  i,  and  ii. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     6i 

be  believed  on  authority.  That  would  be  to  lay  its 
foundation  upon  external  evidences,  and  nothing  could 
be  further  from  the  whole  bent  of  his  teaching.  What 
he  does  mean,  and  say  very  clearly,  is  that  the  carnal 
mind  is  disqualified  from  understanding  Divine  truths ; 
"  it  cannot  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned."  He  who  has  not  raised  himself  above  "  the 
world,"  that  is,  the  interests  and  ideals  of  human 
society  as  it  organises  itself  apart  from  God,  and  above 
"  the  flesh,"  that  is,  the  things  which  seem  desirable  to 
the  "  average  sensual  man,"  does  not  possess  in  himself 
that  element  which  can  be  assimilated  by  Divine 
grace.  The  "  mystery "  of  the  wisdom  of  God  is 
necessarily  hidden  from  him.  St.  Paul  uses  the  word 
"  mystery "  in  very  much  the  same  sense  which  St. 
Chrysostom  ^  gives  to  it  in  the  following  careful  defini- 
tion :  "  A  mystery  is  that  which  is  everywhere  pro- 
claimed, but  which  is  not  understood  by  those  who 
have  not  right  judgment.  It  is  revealed,  not  by 
cleverness,  but  by  the  ,Holy  Ghost,  as  we  are  able  to 
receive  it.  And  so  we  may  call  a  mystery  a  secret 
{airopprjTov),  for  even  to  the  faithful  it  is  not  committed 
in  all  its  fulness  and  clearness."  In  St.  Paul  the  word 
is  nearly  always  found  in  connexion  with  words 
denoting  revelation  or  publication.-  The  preacher  of 
the  Gospel  is  a  hierophant,  but  the  Christian  mysteries 
are  freely  communicated  to  all  who  can  receive  them. 
For  many  ages  these  truths  were  "  hid  in  God,"  ^  but 
now  all  men  may  be  "  illuminated,"*  if  they  will  fulfil 

'  Chrysostom  in  i  Cor.,  Horn.  vii.  3. 

"  See  Lightfoot  on  Col.  i.  26.  •*  Eph.  iii.  9. 

*  2  Tim.  i.  10  {(j}i))Ti{iiv) ;  cf.  Eph.  i.  9. 


62  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

the  necessary  conditions  of  initiation.  These  are, 
to  •'  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  defilement  of  flesh  and 
spirit,"  ^  and  to  have  love,  without  which  all  else  will 
be  unavailing.  But  there  are  degrees  of  initiation. 
"  We  speak  wisdom  among  the  perfect,"  he  says  (the 
reXeioi  are  the  fully  initiated) ;  but  the  carnal  must  still 
be  fed  with  milk.  Growth  in  knowledge,  growth  in 
grace,  and  growth  in  love,  are  so  frequently  mentioned 
together,  that  we  must  understand  the  apostle  to  mean 
that  they  are  almost  inseparable.  But  this  knowledge, 
grace,  and  lo\^e  is  itself  the  work  of  the  indwelling  God, 
who  is  thus  in  a  sense  the  organ  as  well  as  the  object 
of  the  spiritual  life.  "  The  Spirit  searcheth  all  things," 
he  says,  "  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God."  The  man 
who  has  the  Spirit  dwelling  in  him  "  has  the  mind  of 
Christ."  "  He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,"  and 
is  himself  "judged  of  no  man."  It  is,  we  must  admit 
frankly,  a  dangerous  claim,  and  one  which  may  easily 
be  subversive  of  all  discipline,  "  Where  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty " ;  but  such  liberty  may 
become  a  cloak  of  maliciousness.  The  fact  is  that 
St.  Paul  had  himself  trusted  in  "  the  Law,"  and  it 
had  led  him  into  grievous  error.  As  usually  happens 
in  such  cases,  his  recoil  from  it  was  almost  violent. 
He  exalts  the  inner  light  into  an  absolute  criterion  of 
right  and  wrong,  that  no  corner  of  the  moral  life  may 
remain  in  bondage  to  Pharisaism.  The  crucifixion 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  stoning  of  Stephen  were 
a  crushing  condemnation  of  legal  and  ceremonial 
righteousness ;  the  law  written  in  the  heart  of  man, 
or  rather  spoken  there  by  the  living  voice  of  the  Holy 

^  2  Cor.  vii.  I. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN   THE  BIBLE     63 

Spirit,  could  never  so  mislead  men  as  to  make  them 
think  that  they  were  doing  God  service  by  condemning 
and  killing  the  just.  Such  memories  might  well  lead  St. 
Paul  to  use  language  capable  of  giving  encouragement 
even  to  fanatical  Anabaptists.  But  it  is  significant 
that  the  boldest  claims  on  behalf  of  liberty  all  occur  in 
the  earlier  Epistles. 

The  subject  of  St.  Paul's  visions  and  revelations  is 
one  of  great  difificulty.  In  the  Acts  we  have  full 
accounts  of  the  appearance  in  the  sky  which  caused,  or 
immediately  preceded,  his  conversion.  *  It  is  quite 
clear  that  St.  Paul  himself  regarded  this  as  an  appear- 
ance of  the  same  kind  as  the  other  Christophanies 
granted  to  apostles  and  "  brethren,"  and  of  a  different 
kind  from  such  visions  as  might  be  seen  by  any 
Christian.  It  was  an  unique  favour,  conferring  upon 
him  the  apostolic  prerogatives  of  an  eye-witness.  Other 
passages  in  the  Acts  show  that  during  his  missionary 
journeys  St.  Paul  saw  visions  and  heard  voices,  and 
that  he  believed  himself  to  be  guided  by  the  "  Spirit 
of  Jesus."  Lastly,  in  the  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  he  records  that  "  more  than  fourteen  years 
ago "  he  was  in  an  ecstasy,  in  which  he  was  "  caught 
up  into  the  third  heaven,"  and  saw  things  unutterable. 
The  form  in  which  this  experience  is  narrated  suggests 
a  recollection  of  Rabbinical  pseudo-science;  the  sub- 
stance of  the  vision  St.  Paul  will  not  reveal,  nor  will 
he  claim  its  authority  for  any  of  his  teaching.^  These 
recorded  experiences  are  of  great  psychological  interest ; 

*  In  spite  of  this,  he  is  attacked  for  this  passage  in  the  Pseudo-Clementine 
Homilies  (xvii,  19),  where  "Simon  Magus"  is  asked,  "Can  anyone  be 
made  wise  to  teach  through  a  vision  ?  " 


64  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

but,  as  I  said  in  my  last  Lecture,  they  do  not  seem  to 
me  to  belong  to  the  essence  of  Mysticism. 
/  Another  mystical  idea,  which  is  never  absent  from 
the  mind  of  St.  Paul,  is  that  the  individual  Christian 
must  live  through,  and  experience  personally,  the 
redemptive  process  of  Christ.  The  life,  death,  and 
resurrection  of  Christ  were  for  him  the  revelation  of 
a  law,  the  law  of  redemption  through  suffering.  The 
victory  over  sin  and  death  was  won  for  us ;  but  it 
must  also  be  won  in  us.  The  process  is  an  universal 
law,  not  a  mere  event  in  the  past.^  It  has  been 
exemplified  in  history,  which  is  a  progressive  unfurling 
or  revelation  of  a  great  mystery,  the  meaning  of  which 
is  now  at  last  made  plain  in  Christ.-  And  it  must 
also  appear  in  each  human  life.  "  We  were  buried 
with  Him,"  says  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans,^  "  through 
baptism  into  death,"  "  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised 
from  the  dead  through  the  glory  of  the  Father,  so  we 
also  might  walk  in  newness  of  life."  And  again,* 
"  If  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead 
dwell  in  you.  He  that  raised  up  Christ  Jesus  from  the 
dead  shall  quicken  also  your  mortal  bodies  through  His 
Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you."  And,  "  If  ye  were  raised 
together  with  Christ,  seek  the  things  that  are  above."  ^ 

^  Compare  a  beautiful  passage  in  R.  L.  Nettleship's  Remains:  "To  live 
is  Lo  die  into-somelhing  more  perfect.  .  .  .  God  can  only  make  His  work 
to  be  truly  His  work,  by  eternally  dying,  sacrificing  what  is  dearest  to 
Him." 

-  Col.  i.  26,  ii.  2,  iv.  3  ;  Eph.  iii.  2-9.  I  have  allowed  myself  to  quote 
from  these  Epistles  because  I  am  myself  a  believer  in  their  genuineness. 
The  Mysticism  of  St.  Paul  might  be  proved  from  the  undisputed  Epistles 
only,  but  we  should  then  lose  some  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  it. 

"*  Rom.  vi.  4.  ■*  Rom.  viii.  11. 

*  St.  Paul's  mystical  language  about  death  and  resurrection  has  given  rise 
to  much  controversy.     On  the  one  hand,  we  have  writers  like  Matthew 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     65 

The  law  of  redemption,  which  St.  Paul  considers  to 
have  been  triumphantly  summed  up  by  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ/  would  hardly  be  proved  to  be 
an  universal  law  if  the  Pauline  Christ  were  only  the 
"  heavenly  man,"  as  some  critics  have  asserted.  St. 
Paul's  teaching  about  the  Person  of  Christ  was  really 
almost  identical  with  the  Logos  doctrine  as  we  find  it 
in  St.  John's  prologue,  and  as  it  was  developed  by  the 
mystical  philosophy  of  a  later  period.  Not  only  is  His 
pre-existence  "  in  the  form  of  God  "  clearly  taught,^  but 
He  is  the  agent  in  the  creation  of  the  universe,  the 
vital  principle  upholding  and  pervading  all  that  exists. 
"  The  Son,"  we  read  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,^ 
"  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  firstborn  of  all 

Arnold,  who  tell  us  that  St.  Paul  unconsciously  substitutes  an  ethical  for 
a  physical  resurrection — an  eternal  life  here  and  now  for  a  future  reward. 
On  the  other,  we  have  writers  like  Kabisch  {Eschatologie  des  Paulas),  who 
argue  that  the  apostle's  whole  conception  was  materialistic,  his  idea  of  a 
"spiritual  body"  being  that  of  a  body  composed  of  very  fine  atoms  (like 
those  of  Lucretius'  "a«/wa"),  which  inhabits  the  earthly  body  of  the 
Christian  like  a  kernel  within  its  husk,  and  will  one  day  (at  the  resurrec- 
tion) slough  off  its  muddy  vesture  of  decay,  and  thenceforth  exist  in  a 
form  which  can  defy  the  ravages  of  time.  Of  the  two  views,  Matthew 
Arnold's  is  much  the  truer,  even  though  it  should  be  proved  that  St.  Paul 
sometimes  pictures  the  "spiritual  body  "in  the  way  described.  But  the 
key  to  the  problem,  in  St.  Paul  as  in  St.  John,  is  that  pyscho-physical 
theory  which  demands  that  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  world  shall  have  their 
analogous  manifestations  in  the  world  of  phenomena.  Death  must,  some- 
how or  other,  be  conquered  in  the  visible  as  well  as  in  the  invisible  sphere. 
The  law  of  life  through  death  must  be  deemed  to  pervade  every  phase  of 
existence.  And  as  a  mere  prolongation  of  physical  life  under  the  same 
conditions  is  impossible,  and,  moreover,  would  not  fulfil  the  law  in  ques- 
tion, we  are  bound  to  have  recourse  to  some  such  symbol  as  "spiritual 
body."  It  will  hardly  be  disputed  that  the  Christian  doctrine*  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  whole  man  has  taken  a  far  stronger  hold  of  the  religious 
consciousness  of  mankind  than  the  Greek  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  or  that  this  doctrine  is  plainly  taught  by  St.  Paul.  All  attempts  to 
turn  his  eschatology  into  a  rationalistic  (Arnold)  or  a  materialistic  (Kabisch) 
theory  must  therefore  be  decisively  rejected. 

1  Col.  iii.  I.  2  Phil,  ii.  6.  2  Col.  i.  15-17. 

5 


66  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

creation  ;  for  in  Him  were  all  things  created,  in  the 
heavens  and  upon  the  earth;  all  things  have  been 
created  through  Him,  and  unto  Him  ;  and  He  is  before 
all  things,  and  in  Him  all  things  consist "  (that  is, 
"  hold  together,"  as  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version 
explains  it),  "  All  things  are  summed  up  in  Christ," 
he  says  to  the  Ephesians.^  "  Christ  is  all  and  in  all," 
we  read  again  in  the  Colossians.^  And  in  that  bold 
and  difficult  passage  of  the  15th  chapter  of  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  he  speaks  of  the  "  reign  "  of 
Christ  as  coextensive  with  the  world's  history.  When 
time  shall  end,  and  all  evil  shall  be  subdued  to  good, 
Christ  "  will  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the 
Father,"  "  that  God  may  be  all  in  all."  ^  Very  im- 
portant, too,  is  the  verse  in  which  he  says  that  the 
Israelites  in  the  wilderness  "  drank  of  that  spiritual 
rock  which  followed  them,  and  that  rock  was  Christ."  * 
It  reminds  us  of  Clement's  language  about  the  Son  as 
the  Light  which  broods  over  all  history. 

The  passage  from  the  Colossians,  which  I  quoted 
just  now,  contains  another  mystical  idea  besides  that 
of  Christ  as  the  universal  source  and  centre  of  life. 
He  is,  we  are  told,  "  the  Image  of  the  invisible  God," 
and  all  created  beings  are,  in  their  several  capacities, 
images  of  Him.  Man  is  essentially  "  the  image  and 
glory  of  God " ;  ^  the  "  perfect  man  "  is  he  who  has 
come  "  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ."  ^  This  is  our  nature^  in  the  Aristotelian  sense 
of  completed  normal  development ;  but  to  reach  it  we 
have    to    slay   the   false   self,   the   old    man,   which    is 

1  Eph.  i.  10.  "  Col.  iii.  ii.  ^  i  Cor.  xv.  24-28. 

••  J  Cor.  X,  4.  ^  I  Cor.  xi.  7,  I'  Eph.  iv.  13. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     G-j 

informed  by  an  actively  maleficent  agency,  "  flesh " 
which  is  hostile  to  "  spirit."  This  latter  conception 
does  not  at  present  concern  us ;  what  we  have  to 
notice  is  the  description  of  the  upward  path  as  an 
inner  transit  from  the  false  isolation  of  the  natural 
man  into  a  state  in  which  it  is  possible  to  say,  "  I  live ; 
yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  ^  In  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians  he  uses  the  favourite  mystical  phrase, 
"  until  Christ  be  formed  in  you  "  ;  -  and  in  the  Second 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  ^  he  employs  a  most  beautiful 
expression  in  describing  the  process,  reverting  to  the 
figure  of  the  "  mirror,"  dear  to  Mysticism,  which  he 
had  already  used  in  the  First  Epistle :  "  We  all  with 
unveiled  face  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the 
Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same  image  from  glory 
to  glory."  Other  passages,  which  refer  primarily  to 
the  future  state,  are  valuable  as  showing  that  St.  Paul 
lends  no  countenance  to  that  abstract  idea  of  eternal  life 
as  freedom  from  all  earthly  conditions,  which  has  misled 
so  many  mystics.  Our  hope,  when  the  earthly  house 
of  our  tabernacle  is  dissolved,  is  not  that  we  may  be 
unclothed,  but  that  we  may  be  clothed  upon  with  our 
heavenly  habitation.  The  body  of  our  humiliation  is 
to  be  changed  and  glorified,  according  to  the  mighty 
working  whereby  God  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto 
Himself.  And  therefore  our  whole  spirit  and  soul 
and  body  must  be  preserved  blameless ;  for  the  body 
is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  not  the  prison-house 
of  a  soul  which  will  one  day  escape  out  of  its  cage  and 
fly  away. 

St.  Paul's  conception  of  Christ  as  the  Life  as  well 

^  Gal.  ii.  20.  ^  Gal.  iv.  19.  3  ^  Cor.  iji.  18. 


68  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

as  the  Light  of  the  world  has  two  consequences  besides 
those  which  have  been  already  mentioned.  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  fatal  to  religious  individualism.  The  close 
unity  which  joins  us  to  Christ  is  not  so  much  a  unity 
of  the  individual  soul  with  the  heavenly  Christ,  as  an 
organic  unity  of  all  men,  or,  since  many  refuse  their 
privileges,  of  all  Christians,  with  their  Lord.  "  We, 
being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  severally 
members  one  of  another."  ^  There  must  be  "  no 
schism  in  the  body,"  ^  but  each  member  must  perform 
its  allotted  function.  St.  Augustine  is  thoroughly  in 
agreement  with  St.  Paul  when  he  speaks  of  Christ  and 
the  Church  as  "  unus  Christus."  Not  that  Christ  is 
"  divided,"  so  that  He  cannot  be  fully  present  to  any 
individual — that  is  an  error  which  St.  Paul,  St.  Augus- 
tine, and  the  later  mystics  all  condemn ;  but  as  the 
individual  cannot  reach  his  real  personality  as  an 
isolated  unit,  he  cannot,  as  an  isolated  unit,  attain  to 
full  communion  with  Christ. 

The  second  point  is  one  which  may  seem  to  be  of 
subordinate  importance,  but  it  will,  I  think,  awaken 
more  interest  in  the  future  than  it  has  done  in  the 
past.  In  the  8th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
St.  Paul  clearly  teaches  that  the  victory  of  Christ  over 
sin  and  death  is  of  import,  not  only  to  humanity,  but 
to  the  whole  of  creation,  which  now  groans  and 
travails  in  pain  together,  but  which  shall  one  day 
be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God.  This  recognition 
of  the  spirituality  of  matter,  and  of  the  unity  of  all 
nature  in  Christ,  is  one  which  we  ought  to  be  thankful 
1  Rom,  xii.  5.        "  -  I  Cor.  xii.  25. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     69 

to  find  in  the  New  Testament.  It  will  be  my  pleasant 
task,  in  the  last  two  Lectures  of  this  course,  to  show 
how  the  later  school  of  mystics  prized  it. 

The  foregoing  analysis  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  has,  I 
hope,  justified  the  statement  that  all  the  essentials  of 
Mysticism  are  to  be  found  in  his  Epistles.  But  there 
are  also  two  points  in  which  his  authority  has  been 
claimed  for  false  and  mischievous  developments  of 
Mysticism,  These  two  points  it  will  be  well  to  con- 
sider before  leaving  the  subject. 

The  first  is  a  contempt  for  the  historical  framework 
of  Christianity.  We  have  already  seen  how  strongly 
St.  John  warns  us  against  this  perversion  of  spiritual 
religion.  But  those  numerous  sects  and  individual 
thinkers  who  have  disregarded  this  warning,  have  often 
appealed  to  the  authority  of  St.  Paul,  who  in  the 
Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  says,  "  Even  though 
we  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  we 
know  Him  so  no  more."  Here,  they  say,  is  a  distinct 
admission  that  the  worship  of  the  historical  Christ, 
"  the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  is  a  stage  to  be  passed  through 
and  then  left  behind.  There  is  just  this  substratum  of 
truth  in  a  very  mischievous  error,  that  St.  Paul  does 
tell  us  ^  that  he  began  to  teach  the  Corinthians  by 
giving  them  in  the  simplest  possible  form  the  story  of 
*'  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  The  "  mysteries  " 
of  the  faith,  the  "  wisdom  "  which  only  the  "  perfect  " 
can  understand,  were  deferred  till  the  converts  had 
learned  their  first  lessons.  But  if  we  look  at  the 
passage  in  question,  which  has  shocked  and  perplexed 
many  good  Christians,  we  shall  find  that  St.  Paul  is 
'  I  Cor.  ii.  I,  2. 


70  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

not  drawing  a  contrast  between  the  earthly  and  the 
heavenly  Christ,  bidding  us  worship  the  Second  Person 
of  the  Trinity,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever, 
and  to  cease  to  contemplate  the  Cross  on  Calvary. 
He  is  distinguishing  rather  between  the  sensuous  pre- 
sentation of  the  facts  of  Christ's  life,  and  a  deeper 
realisation  of  their  import.  It  should  be  our  aim  to 
"  know  no  man  after  the  flesh "  ;  that  is  to  say,  we 
should  try  to  think  of  human  beings  as  what  they  are, 
immortal  spirits,  sharers  with  us  of  a  common  life  and 
a  common  hope,  not  as  what  they  appear  to  our  eyes. 
And  the  same  principle  applies  to  our  thoughts  about 
Christ.  To  know  Christ  after  the  flesh  is  to  know 
Him,  not  as  man,  but  as  a  man.  St.  Paul  in  this 
verse  condemns  all  religious  materialism,  whether  it 
take  the  form  of  hysterical  meditation  upon  the 
physical  details  of  the  passion,  or  of  an  over-curious 
interest  in  the  manner  of  the  resurrection.  There  is 
no  trace  whatever  in  St.  Paul  of  any  aspiration  to  rise 
above  Christ  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Absolute — to 
treat  Him  as  only  a  step  in  the  ladder.  This  is  an 
error  of  false  Mysticism  ;  the  true  mystic  follows  St. 
Paul  in  choosing  as  his  ultimate  goal  the  fulness  of 
Christ,  and  not  the  emptiness  of  the  undifferentiated 
Godhead. 

The  second  point  in  which  St.  Paul  has  been  sup- 
posed to  sanction  an  exaggerated  form  of  Mysticism, 
is  his  extreme  disparagement  of  external  religion — of 
forms  and  ceremonies  and  holy  days  and  the  like. 
"  One  man  hath  faith  to  eat  all  things ;  but  he  that 
is  weak    eateth    herbs."  ^     "  One    man   esteemeth    one 

*  Rom.  xiv. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     71 

day  above  another,  another  esteemeth  every  day 
alike."  "  He  that  eateth,  eateth  unto  the  Lord,  and 
giveth  God  thanks ;  and  he  that  eateth  not,  to  the 
Lord  he  eateth  not,  and  giveth  God  thanks."  "  Why 
turn  ye  back  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  rudiments, 
whereunto  ye  desire  to  be  in  bondage  again  ?  Ye 
observe  days,  and  months,  and  seasons,  and  years.  I 
am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed  labour  upon 
you  in  vain."  ^  "  Why  do  ye  subject  yourselves  to 
ordinances,  handle  not,  nor  taste,  nor  touch,  after 
the  precepts  and  doctrines  of  men  ? "  ^  These  are 
strongly-worded  passages,  and  I  have  no  wish  to 
attenuate  their  significance.  Any  Christian  priest 
who  puts  the  observance  of  human  ordinances — fast- 
days,  for  example — at  all  on  the  same  level  as  such 
duties  as  charity,  generosity,  or  purity,  is  teaching, 
not  Christianity,  but  that  debased  Judaism  against 
which  St.  Paul  waged  an  unceasing  polemic,  and 
which  is  one  of  those  dead  religions  which  has  to  be 
killed  again  in  almost  every  generation.^  But  we 
must  not  forget  that  these  vigorous  denunciations 
do  occur  in  a  polemic  against  Judaism.  They  bear 
the  stamp  of  the  time  at  which  they  were  written 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  part  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  except  those  thoughts  which  were  connected 
with  his  belief  in  the  approaching  end  of  the  world. 
St.  Paul  certainly  did  not  intend  his  Christian  con- 
verts   to   be   anarchists    in    religious    matters.       There 

*  Gal.  iv.  9-1 1.  ^  Col.  ii.  20-22. 

*  I  have  been  reminded  that  great  tenderness  is  due  to  the  ' '  sancta 
simplicitas"  of  the  "anicula  Christiana,"  whose  reUgion  is  generally  of 
this  type.  I  should  agree,  if  the  "  anicula"  were  not  always  so  ready  with 
her  faggot  when  a  John  Huss  is  to  be  burnt. 


72  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

is  evidence,  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
that  his  spiritual  presentation  of  Christianity  had 
already  been  made  an  excuse  for  disorderly  licence. 
The  usual  symptoms  of  degenerate  Mysticism  had 
appeared  at  Corinth.  There  were  men  there  who 
called  themselves  "  spiritual  persons "  ^  or  prophets, 
and  showed  an  arrogant  independence ;  there  were 
others  who  wished  to  start  sects  of  their  own ;  others 
who  carried  antinomianism  into  the  sphere  of  morals ; 
others  who  prided  themselves  on  various  "  spiritual 
gifts."  As  regards  the  last  class,  we  are  rather  sur- 
prised at  the  half-sanction  which  the  apostle  gives 
to  what  reads  like  primitive  Irvingism  ;  ^  but  he  was 
evidently  prepared  to  enforce  discipline  with  a  strong 
hand.  Still,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  he  trusts 
mainly  to  his  personal  ascendancy,  and  to  his  teach- 
ing about  the  organic  unity  of  the  Christian  body,  to 
preserve  or  restore  due  discipline  and  cohesion.  There 
have  been  hardly  any  religious  leaders,  if  we  except 
George  Fox,  the  founder  of  Quakerism,  who  have 
valued  ceremonies  so  little.  In  this,  again,  he  is  a 
genuine  mystic. 

Of  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament  it  is 
not  necessary  to  say  much.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  cannot  be  the  work  of  St.  Paul.  It  shows 
strong  traces  of  Jewish    Alexandrianism ;   indeed,  the 

^  I  Cor.  xiv.  37. 

'  There  seem  to  have  been  two  conceptions  of  the  operations  of  the 
Spirit  in  St.  Paul's  time :  {a)  He  comes  fitfully,  with  visible  signs,  and 
puts  men  beside  themselves ;  {i>)  He  is  an  abiding  presence,  enlightening, 
guiding,  and  strengthening.  St.  Paul  lays  weight  on  the  latter  view, 
without  repudiating  the  former.  See  H.  Gunkel,  Die  IVir/cutigen  des 
H.  Geistes  iiach  der  popitl.  Anscliaiiting  d.  apostol.  Zeit  und  d.  Lehre  der 
Fauliis. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  BIBLE     73 

writer  seems  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the 
Book  of  Wisdom  and  with  Philo.  Alexandrian  ideal- 
ism is  always  ready  to  pass  into  speculative  Mysti- 
cism, but  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
can  hardly  be  called  mystical  in  the  sense  in  which 
St.  Paul  was  a  mystic.  The  most  interesting  side 
of  his  theology,  from  our  present  point  of  view,  is 
the  way  in  which  he  combines  his  view  of  religious 
ordinances  as  types  and  adumbrations  of  higher 
spiritual  truths,  with  a  comprehensive  view  of  history 
as  a  progressive  realisation  of  a  Divine  scheme. 
The  keynote  of  the  book  is  that  mankind  has  been 
educated  partly  by  ceremonial  laws  and  partly  by 
"  promises."  Systems  of  laws  and  ordinances,  of  which 
the  Jewish  Law  is  the  chief  example,  have  their  place 
in  history.  They  rightly  claim  obedience  until  the 
practical  lessons  which  they  can  teach  have  been 
learned,  and  until  the  higher  truths  which  they  con- 
ceal under  the  protecting  husk  of  symbolism  can  be 
apprehended  without  disguise.  Then  their  task  is 
done,  and  mankind  is  no  longer  bound  by  them.  In 
the  same  way,  the  "  promises  "  which  were  made  under 
the  old  dispensation  proved  to  be  only  symbols  of 
deeper  and  more  spiritual  blessings,  which  in  the 
moral  childhood  of  humanity  would  not  have  appeared 
desirable ;  they  were  (not  delusions,  but)  illusions^ 
"  God  having  prepared  some  better  thing "  to  take 
their  place.  The  doctrine  is  one  of  profound  and 
far-reaching  importance.  In  this  Epistle  it  is  cer- 
tainly connected  with  the  idealistic  thought  that  all 
visible  things  are  symbols,  and  that  every  truth  appre- 
hended  by  finite  intelligences   must  be  only  the  husk 


74  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

of  a  deeper  truth.  We  may  therefore  claim  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  as  containing  in  outline  a 
Christian  philosophy  of  history,  based  upon  a  doctrine 
of  symbols  which  has  much  in  common  with  some 
later  developments  of  Mysticism. 

In  the  Apocalypse,  whoever  the  author  may  be,  we 
find  little  or  nothing  of  the  characteristic  Johannine 
Mysticism,  and  the  influence  of  its  vivid  allegorical 
pictures  has  been  less  potent  in  this  branch  of  theo- 
logy than  might  perhaps  have  been  expected. 


LECTURE    III 


76 


"Alb  dr]  OiKaiws  ixovt}  TTTepovraL  ij  tou  (pi\oa6<pov  didvoia'  irphs  yap 
eKeiyoLS  del  eari  /J-vvfJ-r]  Kara.  dOva/jiii',  irpbs  olcnrep  6ei)s  wp  6ei6s  eVrt.  tois  di 
5»;  ToiovTois  d.vrjp  viro/jLv/i/xaffiv  dpOQs  xpw/xevos,  reXeovs  del  reXeras  reXov/Mevoi, 
riXeos  6i>tus  iJ,bvos  ylyverai."  Plato,  Phcedrus,  p.  249. 

Light  und  Farbe 

"  Wohne,  du  ewiglich  Eines,  dort  bei  dem  ewiglich  Einen  ! 

Farbe,  du  wechselnde,  komm'  freundlich  zum  Menschen  herab  ! " 

Schiller. 

"  Nel  suo  profondo  vidi  che  s'interna, 
Legato  con  amore  in  un  volume, 
Ci6  che  per  I'universo  si  squaderna ; 
Sustanzia  ed  accidente,  e  lor  costume, 
Tutti  conflati  insieme  par  tal  modo, 
Che  cio  ch'io  dice  c  un  semplice  lume." 

Dante,  Paradiso,  c.  t^I- 

"  There  is  no  sadder  sight  than  the  direct  striving  after  the  Unconditioned 
in  this  thoroughly  conditioned  world."  Goethe. 


76 


LECTURE     III 

Christian  Platonism  and  Speculative 
Mysticism 

i.  in  the  east 

"That  was  the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the 
world." — ^JOHN  i.  9. 

"  He  made  darkness  His  hiding  place,  His  pavilion  round  about  Him  ; 
darkness  of  waters,  thick  clouds  of  the  skies." — Ps.  xviii.  11. 

I  HAVE  called  this  Lecture  "  Christian  Platonism  and 
Speculative  Mysticism."  Admirers  of  Plato  are  likely 
to  protest  that  Plato  himself  can  hardly  be  called  a 
mystic,  and  that  in  any  case  there  is  very  little  re- 
semblance between  the  philosophy  of  his  dialogues 
and  the  semi-Oriental  Mysticism  of  Pseudo-Dionysius 
the  Areopagite.  I  do  not  dispute  either  of  these 
statements ;  and  yet  I  wish  to  keep  the  name  of  Plato 
in  the  title  of  this  Lecture.  The  affinity  between 
Christianity  and  Platonism  was  very  strongly  felt 
throughout  the  period  which  we  are  now  to  consider. 
Justin  Martyr  claims  Plato  (with  Heraclitus  ^  and 
Socrates)   as  a  Christian    before    Christ ;    Athenagoras 

^  The  mention  of  Pleraclitus  is  very  interesting.  It  shows  that  the 
Christians  had  already  recognised  their  affinity  with  the  great  speculative 
mystic  of  Ephesus,  whose  fragments  supply  many  mottoes  for  essays  on 
Mysticism.  The  identification  of  the  Heraclitean  voOs-XSyos  with  the 
Johannine  Logos  appears  also  in  Euseb.  Prap.  Ev.  xi.  19,  quoted  above. 

77 


78  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

calls  him  the  best  of  the  forerunners  of  Christianity, 
and  Clement  regards  the  Gospel  as  perfected  Platon- 
ism.i  The  Pagans  repeated  so  persistently  the  charge 
that  Christ  borrowed  from  Plato  what  was  true  in  His 
teaching,  that  Ambrose  wrote  a  treatise  to  confute 
them.  As  a  rule,  the  Christians  did  not  deny  the 
resemblance,  but  explained  it  by  saying  that  Plato 
had  plagiarised  from  Moses — a  curious  notion  which 
we  find  first  in  Philo.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the 
mystics  almost  canonised  Plato :  Eckhart  speaks  of 
him,  quaintly  enough,  as  *'  the  great  priest "  {der grosse 
Pfaffe) ;  and  even  in  Spain,  Louis  of  Granada  calls 
him  "  divine,"  and  finds  in  him  "  the  most  excellent 
parts  of  Christian  wisdom,"  Lastly,  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  English  Platonists  avowed  their  intention 
of  bringing  back  the  Church  to  "  her  old  loving  nurse 
the  Platonic  philosophy."  These  English  Platonists 
knew  what  they  were  talking  of;  but  for  the  mediaeval 
mystics  Platonism  meant  the  philosophy  of  Plotinus 
adapted  by  Augustine,  or  that  of  Proclus  adapted  by 
Dionysius,  or  the  curious  blend  of  Platonic,  Aris- 
totelian, and  Jewish  philosophy  which  filtered  through 
into  the  Church  by  means  of  the  Arabs.  Still,  there 
was  justice  underlying  this  superficial  ignorance.  Plato 
is,  after  all,  the  father  of  European  Mysticism.^  Both 
the  great  types  of  mystics  may  appeal  to  him — those 
who  try  to  rise  through  the  visible  to  the  invisible, 
through  Nature  to  God,  who  find  in  earthly  beauty 
the  truest  symbol  of  the  heavenly,  and  in  the  imagina- 
tion— the  image-making  faculty — a   raft  whereon  we 

^  6  ■Ka.vTo.  dpicrros  nXdrwv — olov  0€O<popovfievos,  he  calls  him. 
'  "  Mysticism  finds  in  Plato  all  its  texts,"  says  Emerson  truly. 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  79 

may  navigate  the  shoreless  ocean  of  the  Infinite  ;  and 
those  who  distrust  all  sensuous  representations  as 
tending  "  to  nourish  appetites  which  we  ought  to 
starve,"  who  look  upon  this  earth  as  a  place  of  banish- 
ment, upon  material  things  as  a  veil  which  hides 
God's  face  from  us,  and  who  bid  us  "  flee  away  from 
hence  as  quickly  as  may  be,"  to  seek  "  yonder,"  in 
the  realm  of  the  ideas,  the  heart's  true  home.  Both 
may  find  in  the  real  Plato  much  congenial  teaching — 
that  the  highest  good  is  the  greatest  likeness  to  God 
— 'that  the  greatest  happiness  is  the  vision  of  God — 
that  we  should  seek  holiness  not  for  the  sake  of 
external  reward,  but  because  it  is  the  health  of  the 
soul,  while  vice  is  its  disease — that  goodness  is  unity 
and  harmony,  while  evil  is  discord  and  disintegration 
— that  it  is  our  duty  and  happiness  to  rise  above  the 
visible  and  transitory  to  the  invisible  and  permanent. 
It  may  also  be  a  pleasure  to  some  to  trace  the  fortunes 
of  the  positive  and  negative  elements  in  Plato's  teach- 
ing— of  the  humanist  and  the  ascetic  who  dwelt  to- 
gether in  that  large  mind ;  to  observe  how  the  world- 
renouncing  element  had  to  grow  at  the  expense  of 
the  other,  until  full  justice  had  been  done  to  its 
claims ;  and  then  how  the  brighter,  more  truly  Hel- 
lenic side  was  able  to  assert  itself  under  due  safe- 
guards, as  a  precious  thing  dearly  purchased,  a  treasure 
reserved  for  the  pure  and  humble,  and  still  only  to  be 
tasted  carefully,  with  reverence  and  godly  fear.  There 
is,  of  course,  no  necessity  for  connecting  this  develop- 
ment with  the  name  of  Plato.  The  way  towards  a 
reconciliation  of  this  and  other  differences  is  more 
clearly     indicated     in    the    New    Testament;    indeed, 


8o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

nothing  can  strengthen  our  behef  in  inspiration  so  much 
as  to  observe  how  the  whole  history  of  thought  only 
helps  us  to  understand  St.  Paul  and  St.  John  better, 
never  to  pass  beyond  their  teaching.  Still,  the  tra- 
ditional connexion  between  Plato  and  Mysticism  is 
so  close  that  we  may,  I  think,  be  pardoned  for  keep- 
ing, like  Ficinus,  a  lamp  burning  in  his  honour 
throughout   our  present  task. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  these  Lectures  to  attempt  a 
historical  survey  of  Christian  Mysticism.  To  attempt 
this,  within  the  narrow  limits  of  eight  Lectures,  would 
oblige  me  to  give  a  mere  skeleton  of  the  subject, 
which  would  be  of  no  value,  and  of  very  little  interest. 
The  aim  which  I  have  set  before  myself  is  to  give  a 
clear  presentation  of  an  important  type  of  Christian 
life  and  thought,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  suggest  to 
us  a  way  towards  the  solution  of  some  difficulties 
which  at  present  agitate  and  divide  us.  The  path  is 
beset  with  pitfalls  on  either  side,  as  will  be  abundantly 
clear  when  we  consider  the  startling  expressions  which 
Mysticism  has  often  found  for  itself.  But  though  I 
have  not  attempted  to  give  even  an  outline  of  the 
history  of  Mysticism,  I  feel  that  the  best  and  safest 
way  of  studying  this  or  any  type  of  religion  is  to  con- 
sider it  in  the  light  of  its  historical  development,  and 
of  the  forms  which  it  has  actually  assumed.  And  so 
I  have  tried  to  set  these  Lectures  in  a  historical  frame- 
work, and,  in  choosing  prominent  figures  as  represent- 
atives of  the  chief  kinds  of  Mysticism,  to  observe,  so 
far  as  possible,  the  chronological  order.  The  present 
Lecture  will  carry  us  down  to  the  Pseudo-Dionysius, 
the  influence  of  whose  writings  during  the  next  thou- 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  8i 

sand  years  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  But  if  we 
are  to  understand  how  a  system  of  speculative  Mys- 
ticism, of  an  Asiatic  rather  than  European  type,  came 
to  be  accepted  as  the  work  of  a  convert  of  St.  Paul, 
and  invested  with  semi-apostolic  authority,  we  must 
pause  for  a  few  minutes  to  let  our  eyes  rest  on  the 
phenomenon  called  Alexandrianism,  which  fills  a  large 
place  in  the  history  of  the  early  Church. 

We  have  seen  how  St.  Paul  speaks  of  a  Gnosis  or 
higher  knowledge,  which  can  be  taught  with  safety 
only  to  the  "  perfect  "  or  "  fully  initiated  "  ;  ^  and  he 
by  no  means  rejects  such  expressions  as  the  Pleroma 
(the  totality  of  the  Divine  attributes),  which  were 
technical  terms  of  speculative  theism.  St.  John,  too, 
in  his  prologue  and  other  places,  brings  the  Gospel 
into  relation  with  current  speculation,  and  interprets  it 
in  philosophical  language.  The  movement  known  as 
Gnosticism,  both  within  and  without  the  Church,  was 
an  attempt  to  complete  this  reconciliation  between 
speculative  and  revealed  religion,  by  systematising  the 
symbols  of  transcendental  mystical  theosophy.-  The 
movement  can  only  be  understood  as  a  premature  and 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  achieve  what  the  school  of 
Alexandria  afterwards  partially  succeeded  in  doing. 
The  anticipations  of  Neoplatonism  among  the  Gnostics 
would  probably  be  found  to  be  very  numerous,  if  the 
victorious  party  had  thought  their  writings  worth  pre- 

^  The  doctrine  of  reserve  in  religious  teaching,  which  some  have  thought 
dishonest,  rests  on  the  self-evident  proposition  that  it  takes  two  to  tell  the 
truth — one  to  speak,  and  one  to  hear, 

-  "  Man  kann  den  Gnosticismus  des  zweiten  Jahrhunderts  als  iheologisch- 
transcendente  Mystik,  und  die  eigentliche  Mystik  ala  .substantiell-immanente 
Gnosis  bezeichnen"  (Noack). 
6 


82  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

serving.  But  Gnosticism  was  rotten  before  it  was  ripe. 
Dogma  was  still  in  such  a  fluid  state,  that  there  was 
nothing  to  keep  speculation  within  bounds ;  and  the 
Oriental  element,  with  its  insoluble  dualism,  its  fan- 
tastic mythology  and  spiritualism,  was  too  strong  for 
the  Hellenic.  Gnosticism  presents  all  the  features 
which  we  shall  find  to  be  characteristic  of  degenerate 
Mysticism.  Not  to  speak  of  its  oscillations  between 
fanatical  austerities  and  scandalous  licence,  and  its  belief 
in  magic  and  other  absurdities,  we  seem,  when  we  read 
Irenaeus'  description  of  a  Valentinian  heretic,  to  hear 
the  voice  of  Luther  venting  his  contempt  upon  some 
"  Geistej'er"  of  the  sixteenth  century,  such  as  Carl- 
stadt  or  Sebastian  Frank.  "  The  fellow  is  so  puffed 
up,"  says  Irenaeus,  "  that  he  believes  himself  to  be 
neither  in  heaven  nor  on  earth,  but  to  have  entered 
within  the  Divine  Pleroma,  and  to  have  embraced  his 
guardian  angel.  On  the  strength  of  which  he  struts 
about  as  proud  as  a  cock.  These  are  the  self-styled 
'  spiritual  persons,'  who  say  they  have  already  reached 
perfection."  The  later  Platonism  could  not  even  graft 
itself  upon  any  of  these  Gnostic  systems,  and  Plotinus 
rejects  them  as  decisively  as  Origen. 

Still  closer  is  the  approximation  to  later  speculation 
which  we  find  in  Philo,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  St. 
Paul.  Philo  and  his  Therapeutae  were  genuine  mystics 
of  the  monastic  type.  Many  of  them,  however,  had 
not  been  monks  all  their  life,  but  were  retired  men  of 
business,  who  wished  to  spend  their  old  age  in  con- 
templation, as  many  still  do  in  India.  They  were,  of 
course,  not  Christians,  but  Hellenised  Jews,  though 
Eusebius,    Jerome,    and    the    Middle    Ages    generally 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  83 

thought    that    they    were    Christians,    and    were    well 
pleased  to  find  monks  in  the  first  century.^ 

Philo's  object  is  to  reconcile  religion  and  philosophy 
— in  other  words,  Moses  and  Plato.^  His  method  ^  is 
to  make  Platonism  a  development  of  Mosaism,  and 
Mosaism  an  implicit  Platonism.  The  claims  of  ortho- 
doxy are  satisfied  by  saying,  rather  audaciously,  "  All 
this  is  Moses'  doctrine,  not  mine."  His  chief  instru- 
ment in  this  difficult  task  is  allegorism,  which  in  his 
hands  is  a  bad  specimen  of  that  pseudo-science  which 
has  done  so  much  to  darken  counsel  in  biblical  exe- 
gesis. His  speculative  system,  however,  is  exceedingly 
interesting. 

God,  according  to  Philo,  is  unqualified  and  pure 
Being,  but  not  superessential.  He  is  emphatically  0  wf, 
the  "  I  am,"  and  the  most  general  (to  yeviKMrarov)  of 
existences.  At  the  same  time  He  is  without  qualities 
(aTToio?),  and  ineffable  (app7}To^).  In  His  inmost  nature 
He  is  inaccessible ;  as  it  was  said  to  Moses,  "  Thou 
shalt  see  what  is  behind  Me,  but  My  face  shall  not  be 
seen."  It  is  best  to  contemplate  God  in  silence,  since 
we  can  compare  Him  to  nothing  that  we  know.  All 
our  knowledge  of  God  is  really  God  dwelling  in  us. 
He  has  breathed  into  us  something  of  His  nature,  and 
is  thus  the  archetype  of  what  is  highest  in  ourselves. 
He  who  is  truly  inspired  "  may  with  good   reason  be 

^  See  Conybeare's  interesting  account  of  the  Therapeutre  in  his  edition 
of  Philo,  On  the  Contemplative  Life,  and  his  refutation  of  the  theory  of 
Lucius,  Zeller,  etc.,  that  the  Therapeuta;  belong  to  the  end  of  the  third 
century. 

"  Stoical  influence  is  also  strong  in  Philo. 

^  The  Jewish  writer  Aristobulus  (about  160  B.C.)  is  said  to  have  used  the 
same  argument  in  an  exposition  of  the  Pentateuch  addressed  to  Ptolemy 
Philometor. 


84  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

called  God."  This  blessed  state  may,  however,  be 
prepared  for  by  such  mediating  agencies  as  the  study 
of  God's  laws  in  nature ;  and  it  is  only  the  highest 
class  of  saints — the  souls  "  born  of  God  " — that  are 
exalted  above  the  need  of  symbols.  It  would  be  easy 
to  show  how  Philo  wavers  between  two  conceptions 
of  the  Divine  nature — God  as  simply  transcendent, 
and  God  as  immanent.  But  this  is  one  of  the  things 
that  make  him  most  interesting.  His  Judaism  will 
not  allow  him  really  to  believe  in  a  God  "  without 
qualities." 

The  Logos  dwells  with  God  as  His  Wisdom  (or 
sometimes  he  calls  Wisdom,  figuratively,  the  rfiother  of 
the  Logos).  He  is  the  "  second  God,"  the  "  Idea  of 
Ideas " ;  the  other  Ideas  or  Powers  are  the  forces 
which  he  controls — "  the  Angels,"  as  he  adds,  sud- 
denly remembering  his  Judaism.  The  Logos  is  also 
the  mind  of  God  expressing  itself  in  act :  the  Ideas, 
therefore,  are  the  content  of  the  mind  of  God.  Here 
he  anticipates  Plotinus ;  but  he  does  not  reduce  God 
to  a  logical  point.  His  God  is  self-conscious,  and 
reasons.  By  the  agency  of  the  Logos  the  worlds  were 
made:  the  intelligible  world,  the  Koa-fMO'i  1^077x09,  is  the 
Logos  acting  as  Creator.  Indeed,  Philo  calls  the  in- 
telligible universe  "  the  only  and  beloved  Son  of  God  "  ; 
just  as  Erigena  says,  "  Be  assured  that  the  Word  is  the 
Nature  of  all  things."  The  Son  represents  the  world 
before  God  as  High  Priest,  Intercessor,  and  Paraclete. 
He  is  the  "  divine  Angel "  that  guides  us ;  He  is  the 
"  bread  of  God,"  the  "  dew  of  the  soul,"  the  "  convincer 
of  sin  "  :  no  evil  can  touch  the  soul  in  which  He  dwells  : 
He  is  the  eternal  image  of  the  Father,  and  we,  who  are 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  85 

not  yet  fit  to  be  called  sons  of  God,  may  call  ourselves 
His  sons, 

Philo's  ethical  system  is  that  of  the  later  con- 
templative Mysticism.  Knowledge  and  virtue  can  be 
obtained  only  by  renunciation  of  self.  Contemplation 
is  a  higher  state  than  activity.  "  The  soul  should  cut 
off  its  right  hand."  "  It  should  shun  the  whirlpool  of 
life,  and  not  even  touch  it  with  the  tip  of  a  finger." 
The  highest  stage  is  when  a  man  leaves  behind  his 
finite  self-consciousness,  and  sees  God  face  to  face, 
standing  in  Him  from  henceforward,  and  knowing  Him 
not  by  reason,  but  by  clear  certainty.  Philo  makes  no 
attempt,  to  identify  the  Logos  with  the  Jewish  Messiah, 
and  leaves  no  room  for  an  Incarnation. 

This  remarkable  system  anticipates  the  greater 
part  of  Christian  and  Pagan  Neoplatonism.  The 
astonishing  thing  is  that  Philo's  work  exercised  so  little 
influence  on  the  philosophy  of  the  second  century.  It 
was  probably  regarded  as  an  attempt  to  evolve  Platon- 
ism  out  of  the  Pentateuch,  and,  as  such,  interesting 
only  to  the  Jews,  who  were  at  this  period  becoming 
more  and  more  unpopular.^  The  same  prejudice  may 
possibly  have  impaired  the  influence  of  Numenius, 
another  semi-mystical  thinker,  who  in  the  age  of  the 
Antonines  evolved  a  kind  of  Trinity,  consisting  of  God, 
whom  he  also  calls  Mind  ;  the  Son,  the  maker  of  the 
world,  whom  he  does  not  call  the  Logos ;  and  the 
world,  the  "  grandson,"  as  he  calls  it.  His  Jewish 
affinities  are  shown  by  his  calling  Plato  "  an  Atticising 
Moses." 

^  Compare  Philo's  own  account  (/;;  Flaccunt)  of  the  anti-Semitic  outrages 
at  Alexandria. 


86  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

It  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Philo 
that  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria  tried  to  do  for  Christi- 
anity what  Philo  had  tried  to  do  for  Judaism.  His  aim  is 
nothing  less  than  to  construct  a  philosophy  of  religion — a 
Gnosis,  "  knowledge,"  he  calls  it — which  shall  "  initiate  " 
the  educated  Christian  into  the  higher  "  mysteries  "  of 
his  creed.  The  Logos  doctrine,  according  to  which 
Christ  is  the  universal  Reason,^  the  Light  that  lighteth 
every  man,  here  asserts  its  full  rights.  Reasoned  belief 
is  the  superstructure  of  which  faith  ^  is  the  foundation. 

"  Knowledge,"  says  Clement,  "  is  more  than  faith." 
"  Faith  is  a  summary  knowledge  of  urgent  truths, 
suitable  for  people  who  are  in  a  hurry ;  but  knowledge 
is  scientific  faith."  "  If  the  Gnostic  (the  philosophical 
Christian)  had  to  choose  between  the  knowledge  of 
God  and  eternal  salvation,  and  it  were  possible  to 
separate  two  things  so  insepararbly  connected,  he  would 
choose  without  the  slightest  hesitation  the  knowledge 
of  God."  On  the  wings  of  this  "  knowledge  "  the  soul 
rises  above  all  earthly  passions  and  desires,  filled  with 
a  calm  disinterested  love  of  God.  In  this  state  a  man 
can  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood,  pure  gold  from 
base  metal,  in  matters  of  belief;  he  can  see  the  con- 
nexion of  the  various  dogmas,  and  their  harmony  with 
reason ;  and  in  reading  Scripture  he  can  penetrate 
beneath  the  literal  to  the  spiritual  meaning.  But  when 
Clement  speaks  of  reason  or  knowledge,  he  does  not 
mean  merely  intellectual  training.  "  He  who  would 
enter  the  shrine  must  be  pure,"  he  says,  "  and  purity 

^  There  is  a  very  explicit  identification  of  Christ  with  NoOs  in  the  second 
book  of  the  Miscellanies :  "He  says,  Whoso  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear.     And  who  is  '  He  '?     Let  Epicharmus  answer  :  Nous  6p^,"  etc. 

-  See  Bigg,  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria,  especially  pp.  92,  93. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  87 

is  to  think  holy  things."  And  again,  "  The  more  a 
man  loves,  the  more  deeply  does  he  penetrate  into 
God."  Purity  and  love,  to  which  he  adds  diligent 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  are  all  that  is  necessaiy  to  the 
highest  life,  though  mental  cultivation  may  be  and 
ought  to  be  a  great  help.^ 

History  exhibits  a  progressive  training  of  mankind 
by  the  Logos.  "  There  is  one  river  of  truth,"  he  says, 
"  which  receives  tributaries   from  every  side." 

All  moral  evil  is  caused  either  by  ignorance  or 
by  weakness  of  will.  The  cure  for  the  one  is  know- 
ledge, the  cure  for  the  other  is  discipline.^ 

In  his  doctrine  of  God  we  find  that  he  has  fallen 
a  victim  to  the  unfortunate  negative  method,  which  he 
calls  "  analysis."  It  is  the  method  which  starts  with 
the  assertion  that  since  God  is  exalted  above  Being, 
we  cannot  say  what  He  is,  but  only  what  He  is  not. 
Clement  apparently  objects  to  saying  that  God  is 
above  Being,  but  he  strips  Him  of  all  attributes  and 
qualities  till  nothing  is  left  but  a  nameless  point ;  and 
this,  too,  he  would  eliminate,  for  a  point  is  a  numerical 
unit,  and  God  is  above  the  idea  of  the  Monad.  We 
shall  encounter  this  argument  far  too  often  in  our 
survey  of  Mysticism,  and  in  writers  more  logical  than 
Clement,  who  allowed  it  to  dominate  their  whole 
theology  and  ethics. 

The  Son  is  the  Consciousness  of  God.  The  Father 
only  sees  the  world  as  reflected  in  the  Son.      This  bold 

'  niiTTis  is  here  used  in  the  familiar  sense  (which  falls  far  short  of  the 
Johannine)  of  assent  to  particular  dogmas.  Yvdai^  welds  these  together 
into  a  consistent  whole,  and  at  the  same  time  confers  a  more  immediate 
apprehension  of  truth. 

-  Acricricns  or  irpa^is. 


88  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

and  perhaps  dangerous  doctrine  seems  to  be  Clement's 
own. 

Clement  was  not  a  deep  or  consistent  thinker,  and 
the  task  which  he  has  set  himself  is  clearly  beyond  his 
strength.  But  he  gathers  up  most  of  the  religious  and 
philosophical  ideas  of  his  time,  and  weaves  them 
together  into  a  system  which  is  permeated  by  his 
cultivated,  humane,  and  genial  personality. 

Especially  interesting  from  the  point  of  view  of  our 
present  task  is  the  use  of  mystery-language  which  we 
find  everywhere  in  Clement.  The  Christian  revelation  is 
"  the  Divine  (or  holy)  mysteries,"  "  the  Divine  secrets," 
"  the  secret  Word,"  "  the  mysteries  of  the  Word  "  ; 
Jesus  Christ  is  "  the  Teacher  of  the  Divine  mysteries  "  ; 
the  ordinary  teaching  of  the  Church  is  "  the  lesser 
mysteries  " ;  the  higher  knowledge  of  the  Gnostic,  lead- 
ing to  full  initiation  (eVoTrTeta),  "  the  great  mysteries." 
He  borrows  verbatim  from  a  Neopythagorean  docu- 
ment a  whole  sentence,  to  the  effect  that  "  it  is  not 
lawful  to  reveal  to  profane  persons  the  mysteries  of  the 
Word " — the  "  Logos "  taking  the  place  of  "  the 
Eleusinian  goddesses."  This  evident  wish  to  claim  the 
Greek  mystery-worship,  with  its  technical  language, 
for  Christianity,  is  very  interesting,  and  the  attempt 
was  by  no  means  unfruitful.  Among  other  ideas 
which  seem  to  come  direct  from  the  mysteries  is  the 
notion  of  deification  by  the  gift  of  immortality.  Clement^ 
says  categorically,  to  yJi)  (pdetpeadai  OeiorrjTo^  ^ere'^eiv 
iari.  This  is,  historically,  the  way  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  "  deification  "  found  its  way  into  the  scheme 
of  Christian  Mysticism.  The  idea  of  immortality  as 
^  Slfout,  V.  lo.  6;. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  89 

the  attribute  constituting  Godhead  was,  of  course,  as 
familiar  to  the  Greeks  as  it  was  strange  to  the  Jews.^ 

Origen  supplies  some  valuable  links  in  the  history 
of  speculative  Mysticism,  but  his  mind  was  less  inclined 
to  mystical  modes  of  thought  than  was  Clement's. 
I  can  here  only  touch  upon  a  few  points  which  bear 
directly  upon  our  subject. 

Origen  follows  Clement  in  his  division  of  the 
religious  life  into  two  classes  or  stages,  those  of  faith 
and  knowledge.  He  draws  too  hard  a  line  between 
them,  and  speaks  with  a  professorial  arrogance  of  the 
"  popular,  irrational  faith "  which  leads  to  "  somatic 
Christianity,"  as  opposed  to  the  "  spiritual  Christianity  " 
conferred  by  Gnosis  or  Wisdom."  He  makes  it  only 
too  clear  that  by  "  somatic  Christianity "  he  means 
that  faith  which  is  based  on  the  gospel  history.  Of 
teaching  founded  upon  the  historical  narrative,  he  says, 
"  What  better  method  could  be  devised  to  assist  the 
masses  ?  "  The  Gnostic  or  Sage  no  longer  needs  the 
crucified  Christ.  The  "  eternal  "  or  "  spiritual  "  Gospel, 
which  is  his  possession,  "  shows  clearly  all  things 
concerning  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  both  the  mysteries 
shown  by  His  words,  and  the  things  of  which  His  acts 
were  the  symbols."  ^  It  is  not  that  he  denies  or 
doubts  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  history,  but  he  feels 
that  events  which  only  happened  once  can  be  of  no 
importance,  and  regards  the  life,  death,  and  resurrection 
of  Christ  as  only  one  manifestation  of  an  universal 
law,  which  was  really  enacted,  not  in  this  fleeting  world 

^  See,  further,  Appendices  B  and  C. 
^  In  Origen,  ao^La  is  a  higher  term  than  yvdai!. 

"The  Greek  word  is  aiviy/xara,    "riddles."     On  the  whole  subject  see 
Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  i.  p.  342. 


90  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

of  shadows,  but  in  the  eternal  counsels  of  the  Most 
High.  He  considers  that  those  who  are  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  universal  truths  revealed  by  the 
Incarnation  and  Atonement,  need  trouble  themselves 
no  more  about  their  particular  manifestations  in 
time. 

Origen,  like  the  Neoplatonists,  says  that  God  is 
above  or  beyond  Being ;  but  he  is  sounder  than 
Clement  on  this  point,  for  he  attributes  self-conscious- 
ness 1  and  reason  to  God,  who  therefore  does  not 
require  the  Second  Person  in  order  to  come  to  Himself. 
Also,  since  God  is  not  wholly  above  reason,  He  can 
be  approached  by  reason,  and  not  only  by  ecstatic 
vision. 

The  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity  is  called  by 
Origen,  as  by  Clement,  "  the  Idea  of  Ideas."  He  is 
the  spiritual  activity  of  God,  the  World-Principle,  the 
One  who  is  the  basis  of  the  manifold.  Human  souls 
have  fallen  through 'sin  from  their  union  with  the 
Logos,  who  became  incarnate  in  order  to  restore  them 
to  the  state  which  they  have  lost. 

Everything  spiritual  is  indestructible ;  and  therefore 
every  spirit  must  at  last  return  to  the  Good.  For  the 
Good  alone  exists ;  evil  has  no  existence,  no  substance. 
This  is  a  doctrine  which  we  shall  meet  with  again. 
Man,  he  expressly  asserts,  cannot  be  consubstantial 
with  God,  for  man  can  change,  while  God  is  immutable. 
He  does  not  see,  apparently,  that,  from  the  point  of 
view    of  the   Platonist,  his  universalism    makes    man's 

^  God,  he  says  (Tbw.  in  Maith.  xiii.  569),  is  not  the  absolutely  un- 
limited ;  for  then  He  could  not  have  self-consciousness  :  His  omnipotence 
is  limited  by  His  goodness  and  wisdom  (cf.  Cels.  iii.  493). 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  91 

freedom  to  change  an  illusion,  as  belonging  to  time 
only  and  not  to  eternity. 

While  Origen  was  working  out  his  great  system 
of  ecclesiastical  dogmatic,  his  younger  contemporary 
Plotinus,  outside  the  Christian  pale,  was  laying  the 
coping-stone  on  the  edifice  of  Greek  philosophy  by  a 
scheme  of  idealism  which  must  always  remain  one  of 
the  greatest  achievements  of  the  human  mind.^  In 
the  history  of  Mysticism  he  holds  a  more  undisputed 
place  than  Plato ;  for  some  of  the  most  characteristic 
doctrines  of  Mysticism,  which  in  Plato  are  only  thrown 
out  tentatively,  are  in  Plotinus  welded  into  a  compact 
whole.  Among  the  doctrines  which  first  receive  a 
clear  exposition  in  his  writings  are,  his  theory  of  the 
Absolute,  whom  he  calls  the  One,  or  the  Good ;  and 
his  theory  of  the  Ideas,  which  differs  from  Plato's ; 
for  Plato  represents  the  mind  of  the  World-Artist  as 
immanent  in  the  Idea  of  the  Good,  while  Plotinus 
makes  the  Ideas  immanent  in  the  universal  mind ;  in 
other  words,  the  real  world  (which  he  calls  the 
"  intelligible  world,"  the  sphere  of  the  Ideas)  is  in  the 
mind  of  God.  He  also,  in  his  doctrine-  of  Vision, 
attaches  an  importance  to  revelation  which  was  new  in 
Greek  philosophy.  But  his  psychology  is  really  the 
centre  of  his  system,  and  it  is  here  that  the  Christian 
Church  and  Christian  Mysticism,  in  particular,  is  most 
indebted  to  him. 

The   soul   is    with    him    the    meeting-point    of    the 

^  I  hope  it  is  not  necessary  to  apologise  for  devoting  a  few  pages  to 
Plotinus  in  a  work  on  Christian  Mysticism.  Every  treatise  on  religious 
thought  in  the  early  centuries  of  our  era  must  take  account  of  the  parallel 
developments  of  religious  philosophy  in  the  old  and  the  new  religions, 
which  illustrate  and  explain  each  other. 


92  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

intelligible  and  the  phenomenal.  It  is  diffused  every- 
where.^ Animals  and  vegetables  participate  in  it ;  - 
and  the  earth  has  a  soul  which  sees  and  hears.^  The 
soul  is  immaterial  and  immortal,  for  it  belgngs  to  the 
world  of  real  existence,  and  nothing  that  is  can  cease 
to  be,'*  The  body  is  in  the  soul,  rather  than  the  soul 
in  the  body.  The  soul  creates  the  body  by  imposing 
form  on  matter,  which  in  itself  is  No-thing,  pure  in- 
determination,  and  next  door  to  absolute  non-existence.'^ 
Space  and  time  are  only  forms  of  our  thought.  The 
concepts  formed  by  the  soul,  by  classifying  the  things 
of  sense,  are  said  to  be  "  Ideas  unrolled  and  separate," 
that  is,  they  are  conceived  as  separate  in  space  and 
time,  instead  of  existing  all  together  in  eternity. 
The  nature  of  the  soul  is  triple ;  it  is  presented  under 
three  forms,  which  are  at  the  same  time  the  three 
stages  of  perfection  which  it  can  reach.^  .  There  is  first 
and  lowest  the  animal  and  sensual  soul,  which  is  closely 
bound  up  with  the  body ;  then  there  is  the  logical, 
reasoning  soul,  the  distinctively  human  part ;  and, 
lastly,  there  is  the  superhuman  stage  or  part,  in  which 
a  man  "  thinks  himself  according  to  the  higher  intelli- 
gence, with  which  he  has  become  identified,  knowing 
himself  no  longer  as  a  man,  but  as  one  who  has  become 
altogether  changed,  and  has  transferred  himself  into  the 
higher   region."     The  soul    is    thus   *'  made    one  with 

^  Enn.  i.  8.  14,  ovhiv  i<XTi.v  6  dfjioip6v  iari  ^ux'^s- 

*  Etin.  iii.  2.  7  ;  iv.  7.  14,  *  Enn,  iv.  4.  26.  *  Enn.  iv.  i,  i. 

*  Matter  is  &\oyos,  ctklo.  XSyov  Kai  ^xtttwctis,  Enn.  vi.  3.  7  >  etSuiXoi'  kuI 
(pdvracrfia  6yKov  Kal  virodTaffeus  i^eais,  Enn.  iii.  6.  7-  If  matter  were 
iwthing,  it  could  not  desire  to  be  something;  it  is  only  no-thing  — 
dirtipia,  aopiaria. 

*"  These  three  stages  correspond  to  the  three  stages  in  the  mystical  ladder 
which  appear  in  nearly  all  the  Christian  mystics. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  93 

Intelligence  without  losing  herself;  so  that  they  two 
are  both  one  and  two."  This  is  exactly  Eckhart's 
doctrine  of  the  funkelein,  if  we  identify  Plotinus*  JV0O9 
with  Eckhart's  "  God,"  as  we  may  fairly  do.  The 
soul  is  not  altogether  incarnate  in  the  body ;  part  of 
it  remains  above,  in  the  intelligible  world,  whither  it 
desires  to  return  in  its  entirety. 

The  world  is  an  image  of  the  Divine  Mind,  which  is 
itself  a  reflection  of  the  One.  It  is  therefore  not  bad 
or  evil.  "  What  more  beautiful  image  of  the  Divine 
could  there  be,"  he  asks,  "  than  this  world,  except  the 
world  yonder  ?  "  And  so  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  world  around  us,  "  and  all  beautiful 
things."  ^  The  love  of  beauty  will  lead  us  up  a  long 
way — up  to  the  point  when  the  love  of  the  Good  is 
ready  to  receive  us.  Only  we  must  not  let  ourselves 
be  entangled  by  sensuous  beauty.  Those  who  do  not 
quickly  rise  beyond  this  first  stage,  to  contemplate 
•'  ideal  form,  the  universal  mould,"  share  the  fate  of 
Hylas ;  they  are  engulfed  in  a  swamp,  from  which 
they  never  emerge. 

The  universe  resembles  a  vast  chain,  of  which  every 
being  is  a  link.  It  may  also  be  compared  to  rays  of 
light  shed  abroad  from  one  centre.  Everything  flowed 
from  this  centre,  and  everything  desires  to  flow  back 
towards  it.     God  draws  all  men  and  all  things  towards 

^  The  passages  in  which  Plotinus  (following  Plato)  bids  us  mount  by 
means  of  the  beauty  of  the  external  world,  do  not  contradict  those  other 
passages  in  which  he  bids  us  "turn  from  things  without  to  look  within" 
(Enn.  iv.  8.  i).  Remembering  that  postulate  of  all  Mysticism,  that  we 
can  only  know  a  thing  by  beconiiug  it,  we  see  that  we  can  only  know  the 
world  by  finding  it  in  ourselves,  that  is,  by  cherishing  those  "  best  hours  of 
the  mind  "  (as  Bacon  says)  when  we  are  lifted  above  ourselves  into  union 
with  the  world-spirit. 


94  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Himself  as  a  magnet  draws  iron,  with  a  constant 
unvarying  attraction.  This  theory  of  emanation  is 
often  sharply  contrasted  with  that  of  evolution,  and 
is  supposed  to  be  discredited  by  modern  science  ;  but 
that  is  only  true  if  the  emanation  is  regarded  as  a 
process  in  time,  which  for  the  Neoplatonist  it  is  not.^ 
In  fact,  Plotinus  uses  the  word  "  evolution  "  to  explain 
the  process  of  nature.^ 

The  whole  universe  is  one  vast  organism,^  and  if 
one  member  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it."* 
This  is  why  a  "  faint  movement  of  sympathy "  ^  stirs 
within  us  at  the  sight  of  any  living  creature.  So 
Origen  says,  "  As  our  body,  while  consisting  of  many 
members,  is  yet  held  together  by  one  soul,  so  the 
universe  is  to  be  thought  of  as  an  immense  living 
being,  which  is  held  together  by  one  soul — the  power 
and  the  Logos  of  God."  All  existence  is  drawn 
upwards  towards  God  by  a  kind  of  centripetal  attrac- 
tion, which  is  unconscious  in  the  lower,  half  conscious 
in  the  higher  organisms. 

Christian  Neoplatonism  tended  to  identify  the  Logos, 
as  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity,  with  the  Nov^, 
"  Mind "  or  "  Intelligence,"  of  Plotinus,  and  rightly ; 
but  in  Plotinus  the  word  Logos  has  a  less  exalted 
position,  being  practically  what  we  call  '*  law,"  regarded 
as  a  vital  force.^ 

^  Plotinus  guards  against  this  misconception  of  liis  meaning,  Efin.  v. 
1 .  6,  iKTTodCov  8i  ijfjuv  ^aro)  yiveais  ij  iv  XP^^V- 
-  f'WTj  i^e\iTTo/j^v7],  Enn.  i.  4.  i. 
^  See  especially  Enn.  iv.  4.  32,  45. 

*  Enn.  iv.  5-  3)  cv/uLTraOes  to  ^'i'ov  To8e  to  wai>  iavTw  ;  iv.  g,  I,  wore  efiov 
iraOdj/TOi  cvvMuOdveadaL  to  irdv. 

*  Enn.  iv.  5-  2,  crv/xirddeia  dfji,vdpd. 

^  See  Bigg,  Neoplatonism,  jjp.  20j,  204.     lie  shows  that  with  the  Stoics, 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  95 

Plotinus'  Trinity  are  the  One  or  the  Good,  who  is 
above  existence,  God  as  the  Absolute;  the  InteUigence, 
who  occupies  the  sphere  of  real  existence,  organic  unity 
comprehending  multiplicity  —  the  One-Many,  as  he 
calls  it,  or,  as  we  might  call  it,  God  as  thought,  God 
existing  in  and  for  Himself;  and  the  Soul,  the  One 
and  Many,  occupying  the  sphere  of  appearance  or 
imperfect  reality — God  as  action.  Soulless  matter, 
which  only  exists  as  a  logical  abstraction,  is  arrived  at 
by  looking  at  things  "  in  disconnexion,  dull  and  spirit- 
less." It  is  the  sphere  of  the  "  merely  many,"  and  is 
zero,  as  "  the  One  who  is  not "  is  Infinity. 

The  Intelligible  World  is  timeless  and  spaceless,  and 
contains  the  archetypes  of  the  Sensible  World.  The 
Sensible  World  is  ou7'  view  of  the  Intelligible  World. 
When  we  say  it  does  not  exist,  we  mean  that  we  shall 
not  always  see  it  in  this  form.  The  "  Ideas  "  are  the 
ultimate  form  in  which  things  are  regarded  by  Intelli- 
gence, or  by  God.  N0O9  is  described  as  at  once  o-racri? 
and  KLV'qaL'i,  that  is,  it  is  unchanging  itself,  but  the 
whole  cosmic  process,  which  is  ever  in  flux,  is  eternally 
present  to  it  as  a  process. 

Evil  is  disintegration.^  In  its  essence  it  is  not 
merely  unreal,  but  unreality  as  such.  It  can  only 
appear  in  conjunction  with  some  low  degree  of  good- 
ness, which  suggests  to  Plotinus  the  fine  saying  that 

who  were  Pantheists,  the  Logos  was  regarded  as  a  first  cause  ;  while  with 
the  Neoplatonists,  who  were  Theists  and  TranscendentaHsts,  it  was  a 
secondary  cause.  In  Plotinus,  the  Intelligence  (NoOj)  is  "King"  [Enn. 
V.  3.  3),  and  "the  law  of  Being"  {Enti.  v.  9.  5).  But  the  Johannine 
Logos  is  both  immanent  and  transcendent.  When  Erigena  says,  "  Certius 
cognoscas  verbum  Naturam  omnium  esse,"  he  gives  a  true  but  incomplete 
account  of  the  Nature  of  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity. 
^  See  especially  the  interesting  passage,  E/ut.  i.  8.  3. 


96  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

"  vice  at  its  worst  is  still  human,  being  mixed  with 
something  opposite  to  itself."  ^ 

The  "  lower  virtues,"  as  he  calls  the  duties  of  the 
average  citizen,'^  are  not  only  purgative,  but  teach  us 
the  principles  of  measure  and  ru/e,  which  are  Divine 
characteristics.  This  is  immensely  important,  for  it 
is  the  point  where  Platonism  and  Asiatic  Mysticism 
finally  part  company.^ 

But  in  Plotinus,  as  in  his  Christian  imitators,  they 
de  not  part  company.  The  "  marching  orders  "  of  the 
true  mystic  are  those  given  by  God  to  Moses  on 
Sinai,  "  See  that  thou  make  all  things  according  to 
the  pattern  showed  thee  in  the  mount."  *  But 
Plotinus  teaches  that,  as  the  sensible  world  is  a 
shadow  of  the  intelligible,  so  is  action  a  shadow  of 
contemplation,  suited  to  weak-minded  persons.^  This 
is  turning  the  tables  on  the  "  man  of  action "  in 
good  earnest ;  but  it  is  false  Platonism  and  false 
Mysticism.  It  leads  to  the  heartless  doctrine,  quite 
unworthy  of  the  man,  that  public  calamities  are  to 
the  wise  man    only  stage    tragedies  —  or   even    stage 

^  Enn.  i.  8.  13,  eVt  audpioiriKov  t/  KaKia,  fj-eixir/fxiv-r}  rivi  fvavr'n^. 

-  The  "  civil  virtues  "  are  the  four  cardinal  virtues.  Plotinus  says  that 
justice  is  mainly  "  minding  one's  business"  (oU^  low  pay  La).  "The  purify- 
ing virtues  "  deliver  us  from  sin  ;  but  rj  <jirov5y}  ovk  t^u)  ajxapria^  elvai,  dWa 
6ebv  elvai. 

^  Compare  Hegel's  criticism  of  Schelling,  in  the  latter's  Asiatic  period  : 
"  This  so-called  wisdom,  instead  of  being  yielde^J  up  to  the  influence  of 
Divinity  l>y  its  contempt  of  all  proportion  and  dejiniteness,  does  really 
nothing  but  give  full  play  to  accident  and  caprice.  Nothing  was  ever 
produced  by  such  a  process  better  than  mere  dreams "  ( Vorrede  ::ur 
Phdnomenologie,  p.  6). 

*  Heb.  viii.  5. 

®  Enn,  iii.  8.  4,  orav  dadefijawcriv  ety  r6  dewpeiv,  aKiav  Oeupias  Kal  X6yov 
T7]V  irpa^iv  TroiovvraL.  Cf.  AiaiQVs  Journal^  p.  4,  "action  is  coarsened 
thought." 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  97 

comedies.!  The  moral  results  of  this  self-centred 
individualism  are  exemplified  by  the  mediaeval  saint 
apd  visionary,  Angela  of  Foligno,  who  congratulates 
herself  on  the  deaths  of  her  mother,  husband,  and 
children,  "  who  were  great  obstacles  in  the  way  of  God." 

A  few  words  must  be  said  about  the  doctrine  of 
ecstasy  in  Plotinus.  He  describes  the  conditions 
under  which  the  vision  is  granted  in  exactly  the  same 
manner  as  some  of  the  Christian  mystics,  e.g.  St.  Juan 
of  the  Cross.  "  The  soul  when  possessed  by  intense 
love  of  Him  divests  herself  of  all  form  which  she  has, 
even  of  that  which  is  derived  from  Intelligence ;  for  it 
is  impossible,  when  in  conscious  possession  of  any  other 
attribute,  either  to  behold  or  to  be  harmonised  with 
Him.  Thus  the  soul  must  be  neither  good  nor  bad 
nor  aught  else,  that  she  may  receive  Him  only.  Him 
alone,  she  alone."  ^  While  she  is  in  this  state,  the  One 
suddenly  appears,  "  with  nothing  between,"  "  and  they 
are  no  more  two  but  one;  and  the  soul  is  no  more 
conscious  of  the  body  or  of  the  mind,  but  knows  that 
she  has  what  she  desired,  that  she  is  where  no  decep- 
tion can  come,  and  that  she  would  not  exchange  her 
bliss  for  all  the  heaven  of  heavens." 

What  is  the  source  of  this  strange  aspiration  to  rise 
above  Reason  and  Intelligence,  which  is  for  Plotinus 
the  highest  category  of  Being,  and  to  come  out  "  on  the 
other  side  of  Being  "  {iirkKuva  rrj<i  ovaia^)  ?  Plotinus 
says  himself  elsewhere  that  "  he  who  would  rise  above 
Reason,  falls  outside  it " ;  and  yet  he  regards  it  as  the 

^  Enn.  iii.  2.    15,  viroKpiam  and  Traiyvtov ;  and  see  iv.  3.  32,  on  love 
of  family  and  country, 
-  Enn.  vi.  7.  34. 

7 


98  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

highest  reward  of  the  philosopher-saint  to  converse 
with  the  hypostatised  Abstraction  who  transcends  all 
distinctions.  The  vision  of  the  One  is  no  part  of 
his  philosophy,  but  is  a  mischievous  accretion.  For 
though  the  "  superessential  Absolute  "  may  be  a  logical 
necessity,  we  cannot  make  it,  even  in  the  most 
transcendental  manner,  an  object  of  sense,  without 
depriving  it  of  its  Absoluteness.  What  is  really 
apprehended  is  not  the  Absolute,  but  a  kind  of 
"  form  of  formlessness,"  an  idea  not  of  the  Infinite, 
but  of  the  Indefinite.^  It  is  then  impossible  to 
distinguish  "  the  One,"  who  is  said  to  be  above  all 
distinctions,  from  undifferentiated  matter,  the  form- 
less No-thing,  which  Plotinus  puts  at  the  lowest  end 
of  the  scale. 

I  believe  that  the  Neoplatonic  "  vision "  owes  its 
place  in  the  system  to  two  very  different  causes. 
First,  there  was  the  direct  influence  of  Oriental  philo- 
sophy of  the  Indian  type,  which  tries  to  reach  the 
universal  by  wiping  out  all  the  boundary-lines  of  the 
particular,  and  to  gain  infinity  by  reducing  self  and 
the  world  to  zero.     Of  this  we  shall  say  more  when 

^  It  would  be  an  easy  and  rather  amusing  task  to  illustrate  these 
and  other  aberrations  of  speculative  Mysticism  from  Herbert  Spencer's 
philosophy.  E.g.,  he  says  that,  though  we  caimot  know  the  Absolute,  we 
may  have  "an  indefinite  consciousness  of  it."  "It  is  impossible  to  give 
to  this  consciousness  any  qualitative  or  quantitative  expression  whatever," 
and  yet  it  is  quite  certain  that  we  have  it.  Herbert  Spencer's  Absolute  is, 
in  fact,  matter  withotit  form.  This  would  seem  to  identify  it  rather  with 
the  all  but  non-existing  "matter"  of  Plotinus  (see  Bigg,  Neoplatonism, 
p.  199),  than  with  the  superessential  "  One"  ;  but  the  later  Neoplatonists 
found  themselves  compelled  to  call  both  extremes  to  /itj  6v.  Plotinus 
struggles  hard  against  this  conclusion,  which  threatens  to  make  shipwreck 
of  his  Platonism.  "  Hierotheus,"  whose  sympathies  are  really  with  Indian 
nihilism,  welcomes  it. 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  99 

we  come  to  Dionysius.  And,  secondly,  the  blank 
trance  was  a  real  psychical  experience,  quite 
different  from  the  "  visions "  which  we  have  already 
mentioned.  Evidence  is  abundant ;  but  I  will  content 
myself  with  one  quotation.^  In  Amiel's  Journal^  we 
have  the  following  record  of  such  a  trance :  "  Like  a 
dream  which  trembles  and  dies  at  the  first  glimmer  of 
dawn,  all  my  past,  all  my  present,  dissolve  in  me,  and 
fall  away  from  my  consciousness  at  the  moment  when 
it  returns  upon  myself.  I  feel  myself  then  stripped 
and  empty,  like  a  convalescent  who  remembers  nothing. 
My  travels,  my  reading,  my  studies,  my  projects,  my 
hopes,  have  faded  from  my  mind.  All  my  faculties 
drop  away  from  me  like  a  cloak  that  one  takes  off, 
like  the  chrysalis  case  of  a  larva.  I  feel  myself  return- 
ing into  a  more  elementary  form."  But  Amiel,  instead 
of  expecting  the  advent  of  "  the  One "  while  in  this 
state,  feels  that  "  the  pleasure  of  it  is  deadly,  inferior 
in  all  respects  to  the  joys  of  action,  to  the  sweetness 
of  love,  to  the  beauty  of  enthusiasm,  or  to  the  sacred 
savour  of  accomplished  duty."  - 

We  may  now  return  to  the  Christian  Platonists. 
We  find  in  Methodius  the  interesting  doctrine  that 
the  indwelling  Christ  constantly  repeats   His    passion 

^  The  following  advice  to  directors,  quoted  by  Ribet,  may  be  added  : 
"  Director  valde  attendat  ad  personas  languida;  valetudinis.  Si  tales  per- 
sonse  a  Deo  in  quamdam  quietis  orationem  eleventur,  contingit  ut  in  omni- 
bus exterioribus  sensibus  certum  defectum  ac  speciem  quamdam  deliquii 
experiantur  cum  magna  interna  suavitate,  quod  extasim  aut  raptum  esse 
facillime  putant.  Cum  Dei  Spiritui  resistere  nolint,  deliquio  illi  totas  se 
tradunt,  et  per  multas  boras,  cum  gravissimo  valetudinis  prceiudicio  in  tali 
mentis  stupiditate  persistunt."  Genuine  ecstasy,  according  to  these 
authorities,  seldom  lasted  more  than  half  an  hour,  though  one  Spanish 
writer  speaks  of  an  hour. 

-  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  translation,  p.  72. 


100  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

in  remembrance,  "  for  not  otherwise  could  the  Church 
continually  conceive  believers,  and  bear  them  anew 
through  the  bath  of  regeneration,  unless  Christ  were 
repeatedly  to  die,  emptying  Himself  for  the  sake  of 
each  individual."  "  Christ  must  be  born  mentally 
(vo7)Toi)'i)  in  every  individual,"  and  each  individual  saint, 
by  participating  in  Christ,  "  is  born  as  a  Christ."  This 
is  exactly  the  language  of  Eckhart  and  Tauler,  and 
it  is  first  clearly  heard  in  the  mouth  of  Methodius.^ 
The  new  features  are  the  great  prominence  given  to 
immanence — the  mystical  union  as  an  opus  opei-atum, 
and  the  individualistic  conception  of  the  relation  of 
Christ  to  the  soul. 

Of  the  Greek  Fathers  who  followed  Athanasius,  I 
have  only  room  to  mention  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  who 
defends  the  historical  incarnation  in  true  mystical 
fashion  by  an  appeal  to  spiritual  experience.  "  We 
all  believe  that  the  Divine  is  in  everything,  pervading 
and  embracing  it,  and  dwelling  in  it.  Why  then  do 
men  take  offence  at  the  dispensation  of  the  mystery 
taught  by  the  Incarnation  of  God,  who  is  not,  even 
now,  outside  of  mankind  ?  ...  If  the  form  of  the 
Divine  presence  is  not  now  the  same,  we  are  as  much 
agreed  that  God  is  among  us  to-day,  as  that  He  was 
in  the  world  then."  He  argues  in  another  place  that 
all  other  species  of  spiritual  beings  must  have  had 
their    Incarnations    of  Christ;    a   doctrine   which    was 

^  But  we  should  not  forget  that  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus 
speaks  of  the  Logos  as  iravrore  vios  iv  aylwv  KapSiais  yepvii/xevos.  In  St. 
Augustine  we  find  it  in  a  rather  surprisingly  bold  form  ;  cf.  injoh.  tract. 
21,  n.  8  :  "  Gratulemur  et  grates  agamus  non  solum  nos  Christianos  factos 
esse,  sed  Chiistum  .  .  .  Admiramini,  gaudete :  Christus  facti  sumus." 
But  this  is  really  quite  different  from  saying,  "  Ego  Christus  factus  sum." 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  loi 

afterwards  condemned,  but  which  seems  to  follow 
necessarily  from  the  Logos  doctrine.  These  argu- 
ments show  very  clearly  that  for  the  Greek  theologians 
Christ  is  a  cosmic  principle,  immanent  in  the  world, 
though  not  confined  by  it ;  and  that  the  scheme  of 
salvation  is  regarded  as  part  of  the  constitution  of  the 
universe,  which  is  animated  and  sustained  by  the  same 
Power  who  was  fully  manifested  in  the  Incarnation. 

The  question  has  been  much  debated,  whether  the 
influence  of  Persian  and  Indian  thought  can  be  traced 
in  Neoplatonism,  or  whether  that  system  was  purely 
Greek.^  It  is  a  quite  hopeless  task  to  try  to  disen- 
tangle the  various  strands  of  thought  which  make  up 
the  web  of  Alexandrianism.  But  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  philosophers  of  Asia  were  held  in  reverence  at 
this  period.  Origen,  in  justifying  an  esoteric  mystery- 
religion  for  the  educated,  and  a  mythical  religion  for 
the  vulgar,  appeals  to  the  example  of  the  "  Persians 
and  Indians,"  And  Philostratus,  in  his  life  of  Apol- 
lonius  of  Tyana,  says,  or  makes  his  hero  say,  that 
while  all  wish  to  live  in  the  presence  of  God,  "  the 
Indians  alone  succeed  in  doing  so."  And  certainly 
there  are  parts  of  Plotinus,  and  still  more  of  his 
successors,  which  strongly  suggest  Asiatic  influences.- 
When  we  turn  from  Alexandria  to  Syria,  we  find 
Orientalism  more  rampant.  Speculation  among  the 
Syrian   monks   of  the   third,  fourth,  and  fifth  centuries 

^  "Greek"  must  here  be  taken  to  include  the  Hellenised  Jews.  Those 
who  are  best  qualified  to  speak  on  Jewish  philosophy  believe  that  it 
exercised  a  strong  influence  at  Alexandria, 

^  Proclus  used  to  say  that  a  philosopher  ought  to  show  no  exclusiveness 
in  his  worship,  but  to  be  the  hierophant  of  the  whole  world.  This 
eclecticism  was  not  confined  to  cultus. 


102  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

was  perhaps  more  unfettered  and  more  audacious  than 
in  any  other  branch  of  Christendom  at  any  period. 
Our  knowledge  of  their  theories  is  very  Hmited,  but 
one  strange  specimen  has  survived  in  the  book  of 
Hierotheus/  which  the  canonised  Dionysius  praises  in 
glowing  terms  as  an  inspired  oracle — indeed,  he  pro- 
fesses that  his  own  object  in  writing  was  merely  to 
popularise  the  teaching  of  his  master,  1*he  book 
purports  to  be  the  work  of  Hierotheus,  a  holy  man 
converted  by  St.  Paul,  and  an  instructor  of  the  real 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite.  A  strong  case  has  been 
made  out  for  believing  the  real  author  to  be  a  Syrian 
mystic,  named  Stephen  bar  Sudaili,  who  lived  late  in 
the  fifth  century.  If  this  theory  is  correct,  the  date  of 
Dionysius  will  have  to  be  moved  somewhat  later  than 
it  has  been  the  custom  to  fix  it.  The  book  of  the 
holy  Hierotheus  on  "  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the 
Divinity  "  has  been  but  recently  discovered,  and  only  a 
summary  of  it  has  as  yet  been  made  public.  But  it  is 
of  great  interest  and  importance  for  our  subject, 
because  the  author  has  no  fear  of  being  accused  of 
Pantheism  or  any  other  heresy,  but  develops  his 
particular  form  of  Mysticism  to  its  logical  conclusions 
with  unexampled  boldness.  He  will  show  us  better 
even  than  his  pupil  Dionysius  whither  the  method  of 
"  analysis  "  really  leads  us. 

The  system  of  Hierotheus  is  not  exactly  Pantheism, 
but  Pan-Nihilism.  Everything  is  an  emanation  from 
the  Chaos  of  bare  indetermination  which  he  calls  God, 
and  everything  will   return   thither.     There  are   three 

^  This  account  of  "  Hier(jtheus"  is,  of  course,  taken  from  Frothingham's 
most  interesting  monograph. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  103 

periods  of  existence — (i)  the  present  world,  which  is  evil, 
and  is  characterised  by  motion  ;  (2)  the  progressive  union 
with  Christ,  who  is  all  and  in  all — this  is  the  period  of 
rest;  (3)  the  period  of  fusion  of  all  things  in  the 
Absolute.  The  three  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  he  dares 
to  say,  will  then  be  swallowed  up,  and  even  the  devils 
are  thrown  into  the  same  melting-pot.  Consistently 
with  mystical  principles,  these  three  world-periods  are 
also  phases  in  the  development  of  individual  souls.  In 
the  first  stage  the  mind  aspires  towards  its  first  prin- 
ciples ;  in  the  second  it  becomes  Christ,  the  universal 
Mind ;  in  the  third  its  personality  is  wholly  merged. 
The  greater  part  of  the  book  is  taken  up  with  the 
adventures  of  the  Mind  in  climbing  the  ladder  of 
perfection ;  it  is  a  kind  of  theosophical  romance,  much 
more  elaborate  and  fantastic  than  the  "  revelations  "  of 
mediseval  mystics.  The  author  professes  to  have  him- 
self enjoyed  the  ecstatic  union  more  than  once,  and  his 
method  of  preparing  for  it  is  that  of  the  Quietists : 
"  To  me  it  seems  right  to  speak  without  words,  and 
understand  without  knowledge,  that  which  is  above 
words  and  knowledge ;  this  I  apprehend  to  be  nothing 
but  the  mysterious  silence  and  mystical  quiet  which 
destroys  consciousness  and  dissolves  forms.  Seek, 
therefore,  silently  and  mystically,  that  perfect  and 
primitive  union  with  the  Arch-Good." 

We  cannot  follow  the  "  ascent  of  the  Mind  "  through 
its  various  transmutations.  At  one  stage  it  is  crucified, 
"  with  the  soul  on  the  right  and  the  body  on  the  left "  ; 
it   is   buried   for  three  days ;  it  descends  into  Hades  ;  ^ 

^  So  Ruysbroek   says,  "We  must  not  remain  on  the  top  of  the  ladder, 
but  must  descend." 


I04  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

then  it  ascends  again,  till  it  reaches  Paradise,  and  is 
united  to  the  tree  of  life :  then  it  descends  below  all 
essences,  and  sees  a  formless  luminous  essence,  and 
marvels  that  it  is  the  same  essence  that  it  has  seen  on 
high.  Now  it  comprehends  the  truth,  that  God  is 
consubstantial  with  the  Universe,  and  that  there  are 
no  real  distinctions  anywhere.  So  it  ceases  to  wander. 
"  All  these  doctrines,"  concludes  the  seer,  "  which  are 
unknown  even  to  angels,  have  I  disclosed  to  thee,  my 
son "  (Dionysius,  probably).  "  Know,  then,  that  all 
nature  will  be  confused  with  the  Father — that  nothing 
will  perish  or  be  destroyed,  but  all  will  return,  be 
sanctified,  united,  and  confused.  Thus  God  will  be  all 
in  all."  1 

There  can  be  no  difficulty  in  classifying  this  Syrian 
philosophy  of  religion.  It  is  the  ancient  religion  of 
the  Brahmins,  masquerading  in  clothes  borrowed  from 
Jewish  allegorists,  half-Christian  Gnostics,  Manicheans, 
Platonising  Christians,  and  pagan  Neoplatonists.  We 
will  now  see  what  St.  Dionysius  makes  of  this  system, 
which  he  accepts  as  from  the  hand  of  one  who  has 
"  not  only  learned,  but  felt  the  things  of  God."  ^ 

The  date  and  nationality  of  Dionysius  are  still 
matters  of  dispute.^      Mysticism  changes  so  little  that 

^  Another  description  of  the  process  of  ^TrXwo-is  may  be  found  in  the 
curious  work  of  Ibn  Tophail,  translated  by  Ockley,  and  much  valued  by 
the  Quakers,  The  Itnprovernent  of  Human  Reason^  exhibited  in  the  Life 
of  Hai  Ebn  Tophail,  newly  traslated  by  Simon  Ockley,  1708. 

*  o\j  fibvov  [xaOijiv  aXKa  Kal  iraOCov  ra.  deta. 

^  See  Harnack,  vol.  iv.  pp.  282,  283.  Frothingham's  theory  necessitates 
a  later  date  for  Dionysius  than  that  which  Harnack  believes  to  be  most 
probable  ;  the  latter  is  in  favour  of  placing  him  in  the  second  half  of  the 
fourth  century.  The  writings  of  Dionysius  are  quoted  not  much  later  than 
500. 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  105 

it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  question  by  internal 
evidence,  and  for  our  purposes  it  is  not  of  great  import- 
ance. The  author  was  a  monk,  perhaps  a  Syrian 
monk :  he  probably  perpetrated  a  deliberate  fraud — 
a  pious  fraud,  in  his  own  opinion — by  suppressing  his 
own  individuality,  and  fathering  his  books  on  St.  Paul's 
Athenian  convert.  The  success  of  the  imposture  is 
amazing,  even  in  that  uncritical  age,  and  gives  much 
food  for  reflection.  The  sixth  century  saw  nothing 
impossible  in  a  book  full  of  the  later  Neoplatonic 
theories — those  of  Proclus  rather  than  Plotinus  ^ — 
having  been  written  in  the  first  century.  And  the 
mediaeval  Church  was  ready  to  believe  that  this  strange 
semi-pantheistic  Mysticism  dropped  from  the  lips  of 
St.  Paul.2 

Dionysius  is  a  theologian,  not  a  visionary  like  his 
master  Hierotheus.  His  main  object  is  to  present 
Christianity  in  the  guise  of  a  Platonic  mysteriosophy, 
and  he  uses  the  technical  terms  of  the  mysteries  when- 
ever he  can.^  His  philosophy  is  that  of  his  day — the 
later  Neoplatonism,  with  its  strong  Oriental  affinities. 

Beginning  with  the  Trinity,  he  identifies  God  the 
Father  with  the  Neoplatonic  Monad,  and  describes  Him 
as  "  superessential  Indetermination,"  "  super  -  rational 
Unity,"  "  the  Unity  which  unifies  every  unity,"  "  super- 
essential      Essence,"     "  irrational     Mind,"     "  unspoken 

^  E.g.,  he  agrees  with  lamblichus  and  ProcUis  (in  opposition  to  Plotinus) 
that  "  the  One  "  is  exalted  above  "  Goodness." 

*  At  the  present  time  the  more  pious  opinion  among  Romanists  seems  to  be 
that  the  writings  are  genuine  ;  but  Schram  admits  that  "  there  is  a  dispute" 
about  their  date,  and  some  Roman  Catholic  writers  frankly  give  them  up. 

'  E.g.,  KaOapCLS,  (pum<T/j,6s,  fJiVT](ns,  iiroTrreia,  Oeucri^  ;  leporeKeffTaL  and 
fiuffrayuyoi  (of  the  bishops),  (}>uiti<xtlkoI  (of  the  priests),  KadapriKoi  (of  the 
deacons). 


io6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Word,"  "  the  absolute  No-thing  which  is  above  all 
existence."  ^  Even  now  he  is  not  satisfied  with  the 
tortures  to  which  he  has  subjected  the  Greek  language. 
"  No  monad  or  triad,"  he  says,  "  can  express  the  all- 
transcending  hiddenness  of  the  all-transcending  super- 
essentially  super-existing  super-Deity."  ^  But  even  in 
the  midst  of  this  barbarous  jargon  he  does  not  quite 
forget  his  Plato.  "The  Good  and  Beautiful,"  he  says, 
"  are  the  cause  of  all  things  that  are ;  and  all  things 
love  and  aspire  to  the  Good  and  Beautiful,  which  are, 
indeed,  the  sole  objects  of  their  desire,"  "  Since,  then, 
the  Absolute  Good  and  Beautiful  is  honoured  by 
eliminating  all  qualities  from  it,  the  non-existent  also  (to 
fxT)  6v)  must  participate  in  the  Good  and  Beautiful." 
This  pathetic  absurdity  shows  what  we  are  driven  to  if 
we  try  to  graft  Indian  nihilism  upon  the  Platonic  doctrine 
of  ideas.  Plotinus  tried  hard  to  show  that  his  First 
Person  was  very  different  from  his  lowest  category — 
non-existent  "  matter " ;  but  if  we  once  allow  our- 
selves to  define  the  Infinite  as  the  Indefinite,  the 
conclusion  which  he  deprecated  cannot  long  be 
averted. 

"  God  is  the  Being  of  all  that  is."  Since,  then. 
Being  is  identical  with  God  or  Goodness,  evil,  as  such, 
does  not  exist ;  it  only  exists  by  its  participation  in 
good.  Evil,  he  says,  is  not  in  things  which  exist ;  a 
good  tree  cannot  bear  evil  fruit ;  it  must,  therefore, 
have  another  origin.      But  this  is  dualism,  and  must  be 

'  VTrepovcrios  dopLcrria — inr^p  vovv  ivdrris—evas  evoiroibs  aTrda-qs  evddos — 
vTrepovaios  ovcria  /cat  vovs  dv^T/ros  /cai  X670S  dpp7)T0% — dXoyla  koX  dvorjala  Kal 
dvuvvnia — avrb  5e  jxr)  6v  (lis  Trdcijs  ovalas  ^TreKetx'a. 

'  ov5e/xia  rj  fiovd^  rj  rpids  i^dyet.  ttjv  vw^p  irdvTO.  KpV(pibT-qTa  ttjs  iiirkp  irdvTO. 
VTrepovaiois  VTrepo6ai]S  inrepdebTrjTOi. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  107 

rejected.^  Nor  is  evil  in  God,  nor  of  God ;  nor  in  the 
angels  ;  nor  in  the  human  soul  ;  nor  in  the  brutes ;  nor 
in  inanimate  nature ;  nor  in  matter.  Having  thus 
hunted  evil  out  of  every  corner  of  the  universe,  he  asks 
— Is  evil,  then,  simply  privation  of  good  ?  But  priva- 
tion is  not  evil  in  itself.  No ;  evil  must  arise  from 
"  disorderly  and  inharmonious  motion."  As  dirt  has 
been  defined  as  matter  in  the  wrong  place,  so  evil  is 
good  in  the  wrong  place.  It  arises  by  a  kind  of 
accident ;  "  all  evil  is  done  with  the  object  of  gaining 
some  good  ;  no  one  does  evil  as  evil."  Evil  in  itself  is 
that  which  is  "  nohow,  nowhere,  and  no  thing  " ;  "  God 
sees  evil  as  good."  Students  of  modern  philosophy 
will  recognise  a  theory  which  has  found  influential 
advocates  in  our  own  day :  that  evil  needs  only  to  be 
supplemented,  rearranged,  and  transmuted,  in  order  to' 
take  its  place  in  the  universal  harmony.^ 

All  things  flow  out  from  God,  and  all  will  ultimately 
return  to  Him.  The  first  emanation  is  the  Thing  in 
itself  {avTo  to  e7uai),  which  corresponds  to  the  Plotinian 
Nov^,  and  to  the  Johannine  Logos.  He  also  calls  it 
"Life  in  itself"  and  "Wisdom  in  itself"  (avro^wr], 
avToao^La).  Of  this  he  says,  "  So  then  the  Divine 
Wisdom  in  knowing  itself  will  know  all  things.  It 
will  know  the  material  immaterially,  and  the  divided 
inseparably,  and  the  many  as  one  (hiaccos:),  knowing 
all  things  by  the  standard  of  absolute  unity."      These 

^  fiopas  ^crraL  irdaris  Svados  o-pxv  is  stated  by  Dionysius  as  an  axiom. 

^  See  especially  Bradley's  Appea7-a7ice  and  Reality,  some  chapters  of 
which  show  a  certain  sympathy  with  Oriental  speculative  Mysticism.  The 
theory  set  forth  in  the  text  must  not  be  confounded  with  true  pantheism,  to 
which  every  phenomenon  is  equally  Divine  as  it  stands.  See  below,  at  the 
end  of  this  Lecture. 


io8  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

important  speculations  are  left  undeveloped  by  Dio- 
nysius,  who  merely  states  them  dogmatically.  The 
universe  is  evolved  from  the  Son,  whom  he  identifies 
with  the  "Thing  in  itself,"  "Wisdom,"  or  "Life  in 
itself."  In  creation  "  the  One  is  said  to  become  multi- 
form." The  world  is  a  necessary  process  of  God's 
being.  He  created  it  "  as  the  sun  shines,"  "  without 
premeditation  or  purpose."  The  Father  is  simply 
One ;  the  Son  has  also  plurality,  namely,  the  words 
(or  reasons)  which  make  existence  (toi»9  ovaio7rocov<i 
Xoyovi),  which  theology  calls  fore-ordinations  {irpoopio-- 
fiov^).  But  he  does  not  teach  that  all  separate  exist- 
ences will  ultimately  be  merged  in  the  One.  The 
highest  Unity  gives  to  all  the  power  of  striving,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  share  in  the  One ;  on  the  other,  to 
persist  in  their  own  individuality.  And  in  more  than 
one  passage  he  speaks  of  God  as  a  Unity  comprehend- 
ing, not  abolishing  differences.^  "  God  is  before  all 
things  " ;  "  Being  is  in  Him,  and  He  is  not  in  Being." 
Thus  Dionysius  tries  to  safeguard  the  transcendence  of 
God,  and  to  escape  Pantheism.  The  outflowing  process 
is  appropriated  by  the  mind  by  the  positive  method — 
the  downward  path  through  finite  existences :  its  con- 
clusion is,  "  God  is  All."  The  return  journey  is  by  the 
negative  road,  that  of  ascent  to  God  by  abstraction  and 
analysis :  its  conclusion  is,  "  All   is  not  God."  ^     The 

^  See  De  Div.  Nom.  iv.  8  ;  xi.  3. 

*  Dionysius  distinguishes  three  movements  of  the  human  mind — the 
circular,  wherein  the  soul  returns  in  upon  itself;  the  oblique,  which 
includes  all  knowledge  acquired  by  reasoning,  research,  etc.  ;  and  the 
direct,  in  which  we  rise  to  higher  truths  by  using  outward  things  as 
symbols.  The  last  two  he  regards  as  inferior  to  the  "  circular"  movement, 
which  he  also  calls  "simplification"  (ctTrXwcrts). 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  109 

negative  path  is  the  high  road  of  a  large  school  of 
mystics ;  I  will  say  more  about  it  presently.  The 
mystic,  says  Dionysius,  "  must  leave  behind  all  things 
both  in  the  sensible  and  in  the  intelligible  worlds,  till 
he  enters  into  the  darkness  of  nescience  that  is  truly 
mystical."  This  "  Divine  darkness,"  he  says  elsewhere, 
"  is  the  light  unapproachable  "  mentioned  by  St.  Paul, 
"  a  deep  but  dazzling  darkness,"  as  Henry  Vaughan 
calls  it.  It  is  dark  through  excess  of  light.^  This 
doctrine  really  renders  nugatory  what  he  has  said  about 
the  persistence  of  distinctions  after  the  restitution  of  all 
things ;  for  as  *'  all  colours  agree  in  the  dark,"  so,  for 
us,  in  proportion  as  we  attain  to  true  knowledge,  all 
distinctions  are  lost  in  the  absolute. 

The  soul  is  bipartite.  The  higher  portion  sees  the 
"  Divine  images "  directly,  the  lower  by  means  of 
symbols.  The  latter  are  not  to  be  despised,  for  they 
are  "  true  impressions  of  the  Divine  characters,"  and 
necessary  steps,  which  enable  us  to  "  mount  to  the  one 
undivided  truth  by  analogy."  This  is  the  way  in 
which  we  should  use  the  Scriptures.  They  have  a 
symbolic  truth  and  beauty,  which  is  intelligible  only 
to  those  who  can  free  themselves  from  the  "  puerile 
myths  "  -  (the  language  is  startling  in  a  saint  of  the 
Church  !)  in  which  they  are  sometimes  embedded. 

Dionysius  has  much  to  say  about  love,^  but  he  uses 


^  The  highest  stage  (he  says)  is  to  reach  rbv  viripcpurov  yv64>ov  Kal  5t' 
d|3\ei/'/as  Kal  dyvwalas  iSelv  Kal  yvCivai. 

^  ToX/xQaa  deoirXaaia  and  Traidapiwdrj^  (pavTacria  are  phrases  which  he 
applies  to  Old  Testament  narratives. 

^  As  a  specimen  of  his  language,  we  may  quote  ?<tt(  5^  e /ctrrartKis  6 
6e2os  ^/3us,  ovK  iwv  iavrOiv  eXvai.  roiis  ipatyrks,  dXXd  tC)v  ipw/j-ivuv  {De  Div. 
Nom.  iv.  13). 


no  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

the  word  epco?,  which  is  carefully  avoided  in  the  New 
Testament.  He  admits  that  the  Scriptures  "  often 
use "  dyaTTT},  hut  justifies  his  preference  for  the  other 
word  by  quoting  St.  Ignatius,  who  says  of  Christ,  "  My 
Love  (epco?)  is  crucified."  ^  Divine  Love,  he  finely 
says,  is  "  an  eternal  circle,  from  goodness,  through 
goodness,  and  to  goodness." 

The  mediaeval  mystics  were  steeped  in  Dionysius, 
though  his  system  received  from  them  certain  modifica- 
tions under  the  influence  of  Aristotelianism.  He  is 
therefore,  for  us,  a  very  important  figure ;  and  there 
are  two  parts  of  his  scheme  which,  I  think,  require 
fuller  consideration  than  has  been  given  them  in  this 
very  slight  sketch.  I  mean  the  "negative  road"  to 
God,  and  the  pantheistic  tendency. 

The  theory  that  we  can  approach  God  only  by 
analysis  or  abstraction  has  already  been  briefly  com- 
mented on.  It  is  no  invention  of  Dionysius.  Plotinus 
uses  similar  language,  though  his  view  of  God  as  the 
fulness  of  all  /i/e  prevented  him  from  following  the 
negative  path  with  thoroughness.  But  in  Proclus  we 
find  the  phrases,  afterwards  so  common,  about  "  sinking 
into  the  Divine  Ground,"  "  forsaking  the  manifold  for 
the  One,"  and  so  forth.  Basilides,  long  before,  evi- 
dently carried  the  doctrine  to  its  extremity :  "  We  must 
not  even  call  God  ineffable,"  he  says,  "  since  this  is  to 

^  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  Dr.  Bigg  {Bampton  Lectures,  Introduction, 
pp.  viii,  ix),  that  Dionysius  and  the  later  mystics  are  right  in  their  interpre- 
tation of  this  passage.  Bishop  Lightfoot  and  some  other  good  scholars  take 
it  to  mean,  "  My  earthly  affections  are  crucified."  See  the  discussion  in 
Lightfoot's  edition  of  Ignatius,  and  in  Bigg's  Introduction.  I  am  not 
aware  how  the  vindicators  of  "  Dionysius  "  explain  the  curious  fact  that 
he  had  read  Ignatius  ! 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  iii 

make  an  assertion    about    Him ;   He    is    above    every 
name    that    is    named."  ^      It   was   a    commonplace   of 
Christian   instruction  to   say   that   "  in  Divine  matters 
there  is  great    wisdom    in  confessing    our   ignorance " 
— this  phrase  occurs  in   Cyril's  catechism.^      But  con- 
fessing our  ignorance  is  a  very  different    thing    from 
refusing  to  make  any  positive  statements  about  God. 
It   is   true  that  all  our  language  about  God  must  be 
inadequate  and  symbolic ;  but    that    is   no  reason    for 
discarding  all  symbols,  as  if  we  could  in  that  way  know 
God    as    He    knows     Himself.      At    the    bottom,    the 
doctrine  that  God  can  be  described   only  by  negatives 
is  neither  Christian  nor  Greek,  but  belongs  to  the  old 
religion  of  India.      Let  me  try  to  state  the  argument 
and  its  consequence   in    a  clear  form.      Since    God   is 
the  Infinite,  and  the   Infinite  is  the  antithesis  of  the 
finite,  every  attribute  which  can'  be  affirmed  of  a  finite 
being  may  be  safely  denied  of  God.      Hence  God  can. 
only  be  described  by  negatives ;   He  can  only  be  dis- 
covered by  stripping  off  all  the  qualities  and  attributes 
which  veil  Him;   He  can  only  be  reached  by  divesting 
ourselves  of  all  the  distinctions  of  personality,  and  sink- 
ing or  rising  into  our  "  uncreated  nothingness " ;  and 
He   can  only  be   imitated  by   aiming   at   an    abstract 
spirituality,  the  passionless  "  apathy "  of  an  universal 
which  is  nothing  in  particular.      Thus  we  see  that  the 
whole  of  those  developments  of  Mysticism  which  despise 
symbols,  and  hope  to  see  God  by  shutting  the  eye  of 

^  See  Harnack,  vol.  iii.  pp.  242,  243.  St.  Augustine  accepts  this  state- 
ment, which  he  repeats  word  for  word. 

*  Compare  also  Hooker  :  "  Of  Thee  our  fittest  eloquence  is  silence,  while 
we  confess  without  confessing  that  Thy  glory  is  unsearchable  and  beyond 
our  reach." 


IF.2  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

sense,  hang  together.  They  all  follow  from  the  false 
notion  of  God  as  the  abstract  Unity  transcending,  or 
rather  excluding,  all  distinctions.  Of  course,  it  is  not 
intended  to  exclude  distinctions,  but  to  rise  above  them ; 
but  the  process  of  abstraction,  or  subtraction,  as  it 
really  is,  can  never  lead  us  to  "  the  One."  ^  The  only 
possible  unification  with  such  an  Infinite  is  the  arepfiodv 
VTjypero'i  vttvo<;  of  Nirvana.^  Nearly  all  that  repels  us 
in  mediaeval  religious  life — its  "  other-worldliness  "  and 
passive  hostility  to  civilisation — the  emptiness  of  its 
ideal  life — its  maltreatment  of  the  body — its  dispar- 
agement of  family  life — the  respect  which  it  paid  to  in- 
dolent contemplation — springs  from  this  one  root.  But 
since  no  one  who  remains  a  Christian  can  exhibit  the 
results  of  this  theory  in  their  purest  form,  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  quoting  a  few  sentences  from  a  pamphlet  written 
by  a  native  Indian  judge  who  I  believe  is  still  living. 
His  object  is  to  explain  and  commend  to  Western 
readers  the  mystical  philosophy  of  his  own  country  :2 — 
"  He  who  in  perfect  rest  rises  from  the  body  and 
attains  the  highest  light,  comes  forth  in  his  own  proper 
form.     This  is  the  immortal  soul.     The  ascent  is  by 

^  Unity  is  a  characteristic  or  simple  condition  of  real  being,  but  it  is  not 
in  itself  a  principle  of  being,  so  that  "the  One"  could  exist  substantially 
by  itself.  To  personify  the  barest  of  abstractions,  call  it  God,  and  then 
try  to  imitate  it,  would  seem  too  absurd  a  fallacy  to  have  misled  any  one, 
if  history  did  not  show  that  it  has  had  a  long  and  vigorous  life. 

^  Cf.  Sir  W.  Hamilton  {Discussions,  p.  21):  "  By  abstraction  we  an- 
nihilate the  object,  and  by  abstraction  we  annihilate  the  subject  of  con- 
sciousness. But  what  remains  ?  Nothing.  When  we  attempt  to  conceive 
it  as  reality,  we  hypostatise  the  zero." 

2  The  Hon.  P.  Ramanathan,  C.M.G.,  Attorney-General  of  Ceylon, 
The  Mystery  of  Godliness.  This  interesting  essay  was  brought  to  my 
notice  by  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  G.  U,  Pope,  D.D.,  University  Teacher 
in  Tamil  and  Telugu  at  Oxford. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  113 

the  ladder  of  one's  thoughts.  To  know  God,  one  must 
first  know  one's  own  spirit  in  its  purity,  unspotted 
by  thought.  The  soul  is  hidden  behind  the  veil  of 
thought,  and  only  when  thought  is  worn  off,  becomes 
visible  to  itself.  This  stage  is  called  knowledge  of  the 
soul.  Next  is  realised  knowledge  of  God,  who  rises 
from  the  bosom  of  the  soul.  This  is  the  end  of 
progress  ;  differentiation  between  self  and  others  has 
ceased.  All  the  world  of  thought  and  senses  is  melted 
into  an  ocean  without  waves  or  current.  This  dis- 
solution of  the  world  is  also  known  as  the  death  of  the 
sinful  or  worldly  '  I,'  which  veils  the  true  Ego.  Then 
the  formless  Being  of  the  Deity  is  seen  in  the  regions 
of  pure  consciousness  beyond  the  veil  of  thought. 
Consciousness  is  wholly  distinct  from  thought  and 
senses ;  it  knows  them ;  they  do  not  know  it.  The 
only  proof  is  an  appeal  to  spiritual  experience."  In 
the  highest  stage  one  is  absolutely  inert,  "  knowing 
nothing  in  particular."  ^ 

Most  of  this  would  have  been  accepted  as  precious 
truth  by   the  mediaeval  Church   mystics.^     The  words 

^  Hunt's  summary  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Vedanta  Sara  [Pantheism  and 
Christianity,  p.  19)  may  help  to  illustrate  further  this  type  of  thought. 
"  Brahma  is  called  the  universal  soul,  of  which  all  human  souls  are  a  part." 
These  are  likened  to  a  succession  of  sheaths,  which  envelop  each  other 
like  the  coats  of  an  onion.  The  human  soul  frees  itself  by  knowledge  from 
the  sheath.  But  what  is  this  knowledge?  To  know  that  the  human 
intellect  and  all  its  faculties  are  ignorance  and  delusion.  This  is  to 
take  away  the  sheath,  and  to  find  that  God  is  all.  Whatever  is  not 
Brahma  is  nothing.  So  long  as  a  man  perceives  himself  to  be  any 
thing,  he  is  nothing.  When  he  discovers  that  his  supposed  individuality 
is  no  individuality,  then  he  has  knowledge.  Man  must  strive  to 
rid  himself  of  himself  as  an  object  of  thought.  He  must  be  only  a 
subject.  As  subject  he  is  Brahma,  while  the  objective  world  is  mere 
phenomenon." 

-  We  may  compare  with  them  the  following  maxims,  which,  enclosed  in 
8 


114  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

nakedness,  darkness,  nothingness,  passivity,  apathy, 
and  the  Hke,  fill  their  pages.  We  shall  find  that  this 
time-honoured  phraseology  was  adhered  to  long  after 
the  grave  moral  dangers  which  beset  this  type  of 
Mysticism  had  been  recognised.  Tauler,  for  instance, 
who  lays  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree  by  saying, 
"  Christ  never  arrived  at  the  emptiness  of  which  these 
men  talk,"  repeats  the  old  jargon  for  pages  together. 
German  Mysticism  really  rested  on  another  basis,  and 
when  Luther  had  the  courage  to  break  with  ecclesi- 
astical tradition,  the  via  negativa  rapidly  disappeared 
within  the  sphere  of  his  influence. 

But  it  held  sway  for  a  long  time — so  long  that  we 
cannot  complain  if  many  have  said,  "  This  is  the 
essence  of  Mysticism-."  Mysticism  is  such  a  vague 
word,  that  one  must  not  quarrel  with  any  "  private 
interpretation  "  of  it ;  but  we  must  point  out  that  this 
limitation  excludes  the  whole  army  of  symbolists,"  a 
school  which,  in  Europe  at  least,  has  shown  more 
vitality  than  introspective  Mysticism.  I  regard  the 
via  negativa  in  metaphysics,  religion,  and  ethics  as  the 

an  outline  of  Mount  Caimel,  form  the  frontispiece  to  an  early  edition  of 
St.  Juan  of  the  Cross  : — 

"  To  enjoy  Infinity,  do  not  desire  to  taste  of  finite  things. 

"To  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  Infinity,  do  not  desire  the  knowledge  of 
finite  things. 

"To  reach  to  the  possession  of  Infinity,  desire  to  possess  nothing. 

"To  be  included  in  the  being  of  Infinity,  desire  to  be  thyself  nothing 
whatever. 

"The  moment  that  thou  art  resting  in  a  creature,  thou  art  ceasing  to 
advance  towards  Infinity. 

"In  order  to  unite  thyself  to  Infinity,  thou  must  surrender  finite  things 
without  reserve." 

After  reading  such  maxims,  we  shall  probably  be  inclined  to  think  that 
"the  Infinite"  as  a  name  for  God  might  be  given  up  with  advantage. 
There  is  nothing  Divine  about  a  tabula  rasa. 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  115 

great  accident  of  Christian  Mysticism.  The  break-up 
of  the  ancient  civilisation,  with  the  losses  and  miseries 
which  it  brought  upon  humanity,  and  the  chaos  of 
brutal  barbarism  in  which  Europe  weltered  for  some 
centuries,  caused  a  widespread  pessimism  and  world- 
weariness  which  is  foreign  to  the  temper  of  Europe, 
and  which  gave  way  to  energetic  and  full-blooded 
activity  in  the  Renaissance  and  Reformation.  Asiatic 
Mysticism  is  the  natural  refuge  of  men  who  have  lost 
faith  in  civilisation,  but  will  not  give  up  faith  in  God. 
"  Let  us  fly  hence  to  our  dear  country  ! "  We  hear 
the  words  already  in  Plotinus — nay,  even  in  Plato. 
The  sun  still  shone  in  heaven,  but  on  earth  he  was 
eclipsed.  Mysticism  cuts  too  deep  to  allow  us  to  live 
comfortably  on  the  surface  of  life ;  and  so  all  "  the 
heavy  and  the  weary  weight  of  all  this  unintelligible 
world  "  pressed  upon  men  and  women  till  they  were  fain 
to  throw  it  off,  and  seek  peace  in  an  invisible  world  of 
which  they  could  not  see  even  a  shadow  round  about  them. 
But  I  do  not  think  that  the  negative  road  is  a  pure 
error.  There  is  a  negative  side  in  religion,  both  in 
thought  and  practice.  We  are  first  impelled  to  seek 
the  Infinite  by  the  limitations  of  the  finite,  which 
appear  to  the  soul  as  bonds  and  prison  walls.  It  is 
natural  first  to  think  of  the  Infinite  as  that  in  which 
these  barriers  are  done  away.  And  in  practice  we 
must  die  daily,  if  our  inward  man  is  to  be  daily 
renewed.  We  must  die  to  our  lower  self,  not  once 
only  but  continually,  so  that  we  may  rise  on  stepping 
stones    of   many   dead   selves   to   higher  things.^      We 

^  Cf.   Richard  of  St.  Victor,  dc  Prirp.   Aiiiiu.   83,  "ascendat  per  seme- 
tipsuni  super  semetipsum." 


ii6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

must  die  to  our  first  superficial  views  of  the  world 
around  us,  nay,  even  to  our  first  views  of  God  and 
religion,  unless  the  childlike  in  our  faith  is  by  arrest 
of  growth  to  become  the  childish.  All  the  good  things 
of  life  have  first  to  be  renounced,  and  then  given  back 
to  us,  before  they  can  be  really  ours.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  these  truths  should  be  not  only  taught,  but 
lived  through.  The  individual  has  generally  to  pass 
through  the  quagmire  of  the  "  everlasting  No,"  before 
he  can  set  his  feet  on  firm  ground  ;  and  the  Christian 
races,  it  seems,  were  obliged  to  go  through  the  sam.e 
experience.  Moreover,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  all 
moral  effort  aims  at  destroying  the  conditions  of  its 
own  existence,  and  so  ends  logically  in  self-negation. 
Our  highest  aim  as  regards  ourselves  is  to  eradicate, 
not  only  sin,  but  temptation.  We  do  not  feel  that  we 
have  won  the  victory  until  we  no  longer  wish  to 
offend.  But  a  being  who  was  entirely  free  from  temp- 
tation would  be  either  more  or  less  than  a  man — 
"  either  a  beast  or  a  God,"  as  Aristotle  says.^  There 
is,  therefore,  a  half  truth  in  the  theory  that  the  goal  of 
earthly  striving  is  negation  and  absorption.  But  it  at 
once  becomes  false  if  we  forget  that  it  is  a  goal  which 
cannot  be  reached  in  time,  and  which  is  achieved,  not 
by  good  and  evil  neutralising  each  other,  but  by  death 
being  swallowed  up  in  victory.  If  morality  ceases  to 
be  moral  when   it  has  achieved   its  goal,  it  must  pass 

^  The  same  is  true  of  our  attitude  towards  external  nature.  We  are 
always  trying  to  rise  from  the  shadow  to  the  substance,  from  the  symbol 
to  the  thing  symbolised,  and  so  far  the  followers  of  the  negative  road  are 
right ;  but  the  life  of  Mysticism  (on  this  side)  consists  in  the  process  of 
spiritualising  our  impressions ;  and  to  regard  the  process  as  completed  is  to 
lose  shadow  and  substance  together. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  117 

into  something  which  includes  as  well  as  transcends  it 
— a  condition  which  is  certainly  not  fulfilled  by  con- 
templative passivity.^ 

These  thoughts  should  save  us  from  regarding  the 
saints  of  the  cloister  with  impatience  or  contempt. 
The  limitations  incidental  to  their  place  in  history  do 
not  prevent  them  from  being  glorious  pioneers  among 
the  high  passes  of  the  spiritual  life,  who  have  scaled 
heights  which  those  who  talk  glibly  about  "  the  mistake 
of  asceticism  "  have  seldom  even  seen  afar  off. 

We  must  next  consider  briefly  the  charge  of  Pan- 
theism, which  has  been  flung  rather  indiscriminately 
at  nearly  all  speculative  mystics,  from  Plotinus  to 
Emerson.  Dionysius,  naturally  enough,  has  been 
freely  charged  with  it.  The  word  is  so  loosely  and 
thoughtlessly  used,  even  by  writers  of  repute,  that  I 
hope  I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  try  to  distinguish  (so 
far  as  can  be  done  in  a  few  words)  between  the  various 
systems  which  have  been  called  pantheistic. 

True  Pantheism  must  mean  the  identification  of 
God  with  the  totality  of  existence,  the  doctrine  that 
the  universe  is  the  complete  and  only  expression  of 
the  nature  and  life  of  God,  who  on  this  theory  is 
only  immanent  and  not  transcendent.  On  this  view, 
everything  in  the  world  belongs  to  the  Being  of  God, 
who  is  manifested  equally  in  everything.  Whatever 
is  real  is  perfect ;  reality  and  perfection  are  the  same 

^  It  may  be  objected  that  I  have  misused  the  term  via  negativa,  which 
is  merely  the  line  of  argument  which  establishes  the  transcendence  of  God, 
as  the  "  affirmative  road "  establishes  His  immanence.  I  am  far  from 
wishing  to  depreciate  a  method  which  when  rightly  used  is  a  safeguard 
against  Pantheism,  but  the  whole  history  of  mediceval  Mysticism  shows 
how  mischievous  it  is  when  followed  exclusively. 


ii8  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

thing.  Here  again  we  must  go  to  India  for  a  perfect 
example.  "  The  learned  behold  God  alike  in  the 
reverend  Brahmin,  in  the  ox  and  in  the  elephant, 
in  the  dog  and  in  him  who  eateth  the  flesh  of  dogs."  ^ 
So  Pope  says  that  God  is  "  as  full,  as  perfect,  in  a  hair 
as  heart."  The  Persian  Sufis  were  deeply  involved  in 
this  error,  which  leads  to  all  manner  of  absurdities  and 
even  immoralities.  It  is  inconsistent  with  any  belief 
in  purpose,  either  in  the  whole  or  in  the  parts.  Evil, 
therefore,  cannot  exist  for  the  sake  of  a  higher  good : 
it  must  be  itself  good.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  view 
of  the  world  may  pass  into  pessimism  or  nihilism  ;  for 
if  everything  is  equally  real  and  equally  Divine,  it 
makes  no  difference,  except  to  our  tempers,  whether 
we  call  it  everything  or  nothing,  good  or  bad. 

None  of  the  writers  with  whom  we  have  to  deal  can 
fairly  be  charged  with  this  error,  which  is  subversive  of 
the  very  foundations  of  true  religion.  Eckhart,  carried 
away  by  his  love  of  paradox,  allows  himself  occasionally 
to  make  statements  which,  if  logically  developed,  would 
come  perilously  near  to  it ;  and  Emerson's  philosophy 
is  more  seriously  compromised  in  this  direction.  Dio- 
nysius  is  in  no  such  danger,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
he  stands  too  near  to  Plato,  The  pantheistic  tendency 
of  mediaeval  Realism  requires  a  few  words  of  explana- 
tion, especially  as  I  have  placed  the  name  of  Plato  at 
the  head  of  this  Lecture.  Plato's  doctrine  of  ideas 
aimed  at  establishing  the  transcendence  of  the  highest 
Idea — that  of  God.  But  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of  ideas, 
as  held  by  the  extreme  Realists,  sought  to  find  room  in 
the  summum  genus  for  a  harmonious  coexistence  of  all 

^  See  Vaiighan,  Hours  with  the  Mystics,  vol.  i.  p.  58.  S 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  119 

things.  It  thus  tended  towards  Pantheism  ;^  while  the 
AristoteHan  Realists  maintained  the  substantial  char- 
acter of  individuals  outside  the  Being  of  God.  "  This 
view,"  says  Eicken,  "  which  quite  inverted  the  historical 
and  logical  relation  of  the  Platonic  and  Aristotelian 
philosophies,  was  maintained  till  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages." 

We  may  also  call  pantheistic  any  system  which 
regards  the  cosmic  process  as  a  real  becoming  of  God. 
According  to  this  theory,  God  comes  to  Himself,  attains 
full  self-consciousness,  in  the  highest  of  His  creatures, 
which  are,  as  it  were,  the  organs  of  His  self-unfolding 
Personality.  This  is  not  a  philosophy  which  commends 
itself  specially  to  speculative  mystics,  because  it  in- 
volves the  belief  that  time  is  an  ultimate  reality.  If 
in  the  cosmic  process,  which  takes  place  in  time,  God 
becomes  something  which  He  was  not  before,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  He  is  exalted  above  time,  or  that  a  thou- 
sand years  are  to  Him  as  one  day.  I  shall  say  in  my 
fourth  Lecture  that  this  view  cannot  justly  be  attributed 
to  Eckhart.  Students  of  Hegel  are  not  agreed  whether 
it  is  or  is  not  part  of  their  master's  teaching,^ 

The  idea  of  ivill  as  a  world-principle  —  not  in 
Schopenhauer's  sense  of  a  blind  force  impelling  from 

^  Seth,  Hegelianism  and  Personality,  states  this  more  strongly.  lie 
argues  that  "  the  ultimate  goal  of  Realism  is  a  thorough-going  Pantheism." 
God  is  regarded  as  the  sumimim  getius,  the  ultimate  Substance  of  which  all 
existing  things  are  accidents.  The  genus  inheres  in  the  species,  and  the 
species  in  individuals,  as  an  entity  common  to  all  and  identical  in  each, 
an  entity  to  which  individual  differences  adhere  as  accidents. 

^  M'Taggart,  Studies  iji  Hegeliati  Dialectic,  p.  159  sq.,  argues  that 
Hegel  means  that  the  Absolute  Idea  exists  eternally  in  its  full  perfection. 
There  can  be  no  real  development  in  time.  "  Infinite  time  is  a  false 
infinite  of  endless  aggregation."  The  whole  discussion  is  very  instructive 
and  interesting. 


I20  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

within,  but  as  the  determination  of  a  conscious  Mind — 
Hfts  us  at  once  out  of  Pantheism.^  It  sets  up  the  dis- 
tinction between  what  is  and  what  ought  to  be,  which 
Pantheism  cannot  find  room  for,  and  at  the  same  time 
implies  that  the  cosmic  process  is  already  complete  in 
the  consciousness  of  God,  which  cannot  be  held  if  He 
is  subordinated  to  the  category  of  time. 

God  is  more  than  the  All,  as  being  the  perfect 
Personality,  whose  Will  is  manifested  in  creation  under 
necessarily  imperfect  conditions.  He  is  also  in  a  sense 
less  than  the  All,  since  pain,  weakness,  and  sin,  though 
known  to  Him  as  infinite  Mind,  can  hardly  be  felt  by 
Him  as  infinite  Perfection,  The  function  of  evil  in  the 
economy  of  the  universe  is  an  inscrutable  mystery, 
about  which  speculative  Mysticism  merely  asserts  that 
the  solution  cannot  be  that  of  the  Manicheans,  It  is 
only  the  Agnostic  ^  who  will  here  offer  the  dilemma  of 
Dualism  or  Pantheism,  and  try  to  force  the  mystic  to 
accept  the  second  alternative. 

There  are  two  other  views  of  the  universe  which 
have  been  called  pantheistic,  but  incorrectly. 

The  first  is  that  properly  called  AcosfJiism,  which  we 
have  encountered  as  Orientalised  Platonism.  Plato's 
theory  of  ideas  was  popularised  into  a  doctrine  of  two 
separate  worlds,  related  to  each  other  as  shadow  and 
substance.  The  intelligible  world,  which  is  in  the 
mind  of  God,  alone  exists ;  and  thus,  by  denying 
reality  to  the  visible  world,  we  get  a  kind  of  idealistic 
Pantheism.     But  the  notion  of  God  as  abstract  Unity, 

'  So  Lasson  says  well,  in  his  book  on  Meister  Eckhart,  "  Mysticism 
views  everything  from  the  standpoint  of  teleology,  while  Pantheism 
generally  stops  at  causality." 

-  As,  for  instance,  Leslie  Stephen  tries  to  do  in  his  Ai^nos/ic's  Apology. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  121 

which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  held  by  the  later  Neo- 
platonists  and  their  Christian  followers,  seems  to  make 
a  real  world  impossible ;  for  bare  Unity  cannot  create, 
and  the  metaphor  of  the  sun  shedding  his  rays  explains 
nothing.  Accordingly  the  "  intelligible  world,"  the 
sphere  of  reality,  drops  out,  and  we  are  left  with  only 
the  infra-real  world  and  the  supra-real  One.  So  we 
iare  landed  in  nihilism  or  Asiatic  Mysticism.^ 

The  second  is  the  belief  in  the  immanence  of  a 
God  who  is  also  transcendent.  This  should  be  called 
Panentheism,  a  useful  word  coined  by  Krause,  and  not 
Pantheism.  In  its  true  form  it  is  an  integral  part  of 
Christian  philosophy,  and,  indeed,  of  all  rational  theo- 
logy. But  in  proportion  as  the  indwelling  of  God,  or 
of  Christ,  or  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart  of  man,  is 
regarded  as  an  opus  operatJim,  or  as  complete  substitu- 
tion of  the  Divine  for  the  human,  we  are  in  danger  of 
a  self-deification  which  resembles  the  maddest  phase 
of  Pantheism.^ 

Pantheism,  as  I  understand  the  word,  is  a  pitfall  for 
Mysticism  to  avoid,  not  an  error  involved  in  its  first 

^  The  system  of  Spinoza,  based  on  the  canon,  "  Omnis  determinatio  est 
negatio,"  proceeds  by  wiping  out  all  dividing  lines,  which  he  regards  as 
illusions,  in  order  to  reach  the  ultimate  truth  of  things.  This,  as  Hegel 
showed,  is  acosmism  rather  than  Pantheism,  and  certainly  not  "  atheism." 
The  method  of  Spinoza  should  have  led  him,  as  the  same  method  led 
Dionysius,  to  define  God  as  vTrepovcrMs  aopLaria.  He  only  escapes  this 
conclusion  by  an  inconsistency.  See  E.  Caird,  Evolution  of  Religion, 
vol.  i.  pp.  104,  105. 

^  There  is  a  third  system  which  is  called  pantheistic  ;  but  as  it  has 
nothing  to  do  with  Mysticism,  I  need  not  try  to  determine  whether  it 
deserves  the  name  or  not.  It  is  that  which  deifies  physical  law.  Some- 
times it  is  "materialism  grown  sentimental,"  as  it  has  been  lately  de- 
scribed ;  sometimes  it  issues  in  stern  Fatalism.  This  is  Stoicism  ;  and 
high  Calvinism  is  simply  Christian  Stoicism.  It  has  been  called  pan- 
theistic, because  it  admits  only  one  Will  in  the  universe. 


122  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

principles.  But  we  need  not  quarrel  with  those  who 
have  said  that  speculative  Mysticism  is  the  Christian 
form  of  Pantheism.  For  there  is  much  truth  in 
Amiel's  dictum,  that  "  Christianity,  if  it  is  to  triumph 
over  Pantheism,  must  absorb  it."  Those  are  no  true 
friends  to  the  cause  of  religion  who  would  base  it  en- 
tirely upon  dogmatic  supernaturalism.  The  passion 
for  facts  which  are  objective,  isolated,  and  past,  often 
prevents  us  from  seeing  facts  which  are  eternal  and 
spiritual.  We  cry,  "  Lo  here,"  and  "  Lo  there,"  and 
forget  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  us  and 
amongst  us.  The  great  service  rendered  by  the 
speculative  mystics  to  the  Christian  Church  lies  in 
their  recognition  of  those  truths  which  Pantheism 
grasps   only  to  destroy. 


LECTURE    IV 


123 


Heraclitus. 

"  La  philosophic  n'est  pas  philosophic  si  clle  ne  touche  a  I'abime ;  mais 
elle  ccssc  d'etre  philosophic  si  elle  y  tombe." 

Cousin. 

"  Denn  Alles  muss  in  Nichts  zerfallen, 
Wenn  es  im  Sein  beharren  will." 
Goethe. 

"  Seek  no  more  abroad,  say  I, 
House  and  Home,  but  turn  thine  eye 
Inward,  and  observe  thy  breast ; 
There  alone  dwells  solid  Rest. 
Say  not  that  this  House  is  small, 
Girt  up  in  a  narrow  wall : 
In  a  cleanly  sober  mind 
Heaven  itself  full  room  doth  find. 
Here  content  make  thine  abode 
With  thyself  and  with  thy  God. 
Here  in  this  sweet  privacy 
May'st  thou  with  thyself  agree, 
And  keep  House  in  peace,  tho'  all 
Th'  Universe's  fabric  fall." 

Joseph  Beaumont. 

"The  One  remains,  the  many  change  and  pass: 

Heaven's  light  for  ever  shines  ;  earth's  shadows  fly : 
Life,  like  a  dome  of  many-coloured  glass, 
Stains  the  white  radiance  of  Eternity," 

Shelley. 


LECTURE    IV 

Christian  Platonism  and  Speculative 
Mysticism 

2.  in  the  west 

"  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  a  temple  of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
dwelleth  in  you?"-    i  CoR.  iii.  i6. 

We  have  seen  that  Mysticism,  like  most  other  types 
of  religion,  had  its  cradle  in  the  East.  The  Christian 
Platonists,  whom  we  considered  in  the  last  Lecture, 
wrote  in  Greek,  and  we  had  no  occasion  to  mention 
the  Western  Churches.  But  after  the  Pseudo- 
Dionysius,  the  East  had  little  more  to  contribute  to 
Christian  thought.  John  of  Damascus,  in  the  eighth 
century,  half  mystic  and  half  scholastic,  need  not 
detain  us.  The  Eastern  Churches  rapidly  sank  into  a 
deplorably  barbarous  condition,  from  which  they  have 
never  emerged.  We  may  therefore  turn  away  from 
the  Greek-speaking  countries,  and  trace  the  course  of 
Mysticism  in  the  Latin   and   Teutonic  races. 

Scientific  Mysticism  in  the  West  did  not  all  pass 
through  Dionysius.  Victorinus,  a  Neoplatonic  philo- 
sopher, was  converted  to  Christianity  in  his  old  age, 
about  360  A.D.  The  story  of  his  conversion,  and  the 
joy  which  it  caused  in  the  Christian  community,  is  told 


126  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

by  St.  Augustine.'^  He  was  a  deep  thinker  of 
the  speculative  mystical  type,  but  a  clumsy  and  ob- 
scure writer,  in  spite  of  his  rhetorical  training.  His 
importance  lies  in  his  position  as  the  first  Christian 
Neoplatonist  who  wrote  in  Latin. 

The  Trinitarian  doctrine  of  Victorinus  anticipates  in 
a  remarkable  manner  that  of  the  later  philosophical 
mystics.  The  Father,  he  says,  eternally  knows  Him- 
self in  the  Son.  The  Son  is  the  self-objectification  of 
God,  the  "  forma "  of  God,^  the  utterance  of  the 
Absolute.  The  Father  is  " cessatio"  " silentiuml^ 
"  quies " ;  but  He  is  also  "  motus"  while  the  Son  is 
"  motto"  There  is  no  contradiction  between  *'  motus " 
and  "  cessatio"  since  "  motus "  is  not  the  same  as 
"  mutatto."  "  Movement "  belongs  to  the  "  being  "  of 
God  ;  and  this  eternal  "  movement "  is  the  generation 
of  the  Son.  This  eternal  generation  is  exalted  above 
time.  All  life  is  now :  we  live  always  in  the  present, 
not  in  the  past  or  future ;  and  thus  our  life  is  a  symbol 
of  eternity,  to  which  all  things  are  for  ever  present.^ 
The  generation  of  the  Son  is  at  the  same  time  the 
creation  of  the  archetypal  world ;  for  the  Son  is  the 
cosmic  principle,*  through  whom  all  that  potentially  is 
is  actualised.  He  even  says  that  the  Father  is  to  the 
Son  as  6  firj  a>v  to  6  a>v,  thus  taking  the  step  which 
Plotinus    wished    to    avoid,    and    applying    the    same 


1  Con/,  viii.  2-5.  The  best  account  of  the  theology  of  Victorinus  is 
Gore's  article  in  the  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography. 

^  So  Synesius  calls  the  Son  irarpbs  fiopcf)ri. 

'"Non  enin  vivimus  prteteritum  aut  vivimus  futurum,  sed  semper 
praesenti  utimur."  "  Jiternitas  semper  per  prtesentiam  habet  omnia  et 
haec  semper." 

■*  "  Effectus  est  omnia,"  Victorinus  says  plainly.   Si>   fe^t't.  aU*. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  127 

expression  to  the  superessential  God  as  to  infra- 
essential  matter.^ 

This  actualisation  is  a  self-Hmitation  of  God,^  but 
involves  no  degradation.  Victorinus  uses  language 
implying  the  subordination  of  the  Son,  but  is  strongly 
opposed  to  Arianism. 

^-  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  "  bond "  (copula)  of  the 
Trinity,  joining  in  perfect  love  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
Victorinus  is  the  first  to  use  this  idea,  which  afterwards 
became  common.  It  is  based  on  the  Neoplatonic 
triad  of  status,  progression  regressus  {fiouij,  irpooBo';, 
eTTLcrTpo^rj).  In  another  place  he  symbolises  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  the  female  principle,  the  "  Mother  of  Christ " 
in  His  eternal  life.  This  metaphor  is  a  relic  of 
Gnosticism,  which  the  Church  wisely  rejected. 

The  second  Person  of  the  Trinity  contains  in  Him- 
self the  archetypes  of  everything.  He  is  the  "  ele- 
inentum"  "  habitaculuin"  "  habitator"  "  locus  "  of  the 
universe.  The  material  world  was  created  for  man's 
probation.  All  spirits  pre-existed,  and  their  partial 
immersion  in  an  impure  material  environment  is  a 
degradation  from  which  they  must  aspire  to  be 
delivered.  But  the  whole  mundane  history  of  a  soul 
is  only  the  realisation  of  the  idea  which  had  existed 
from  all  eternity  in  the  mind  of  God.  These  doctrines 
show  that  Victorinus  is  involved  in  a  dualistic  view  of 
matter,  and  in  a  form  of  predestinarianism  ;  but  he  has 

^  Victorinus  must  have  got  this  phrase  from  some  Greek  Neoplatonist. 
It  was  explained  that  to  /xtj  Gv  may  be  used  in  four  senses,  and  that  it  is  not 
intended  to  identify  the  two  extremes.  But  the  very  remarkable  passage 
in  Hierotheus  (referred  to  in  Lecture  III.)  shows  that  the  two  categories 
of  aopiarla.  cannot  be  kept  apart. 

^  "  Ipse  se  ipsum  circumterminavit." 


128  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

no  definite  teaching  on  the  relation  of  sin  to  the  ideal 
world. 

His  language  about  Christ  and  the  Church  is 
mystical  in  tone.  "  The  Church  is  Christ,"  he  says ; 
"  The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  our  resurrection  " ;  and 
of  the  Eucharist,  "  The  body  of  Christ  is  life." 

We  now  come  to  St.  Augustine  himself,  who  at  one 
period  of  his  life  was  a  diligent  student  of  Plotinus, 
It  would  be  hardly  justifiable  to  claim  St,  Augustine 
as  a  mystic,  since  there  are  important  parts  of  his 
teaching  which  have  no  affinity  to  Mysticism  ;  but  it 
touched  him  on  one  side,  and  he  remained  half  a 
Platonist.  His  natural  sympathy  with  Mysticism  was 
not  destroyed  by  the  vulgar  and  perverted  forms  of  it 
with  which  he  was  first  brought  in  contact.  The 
Manicheans  and  Gnostics  only  taught  him  to  dis- 
tinguish true  Mysticism  from  false :  he  soon  saw 
through  the  pretensions  of  these  sectaries,  while  he 
was  not  ashamed  to  learn  from  Plotinus.  The 
mystical  or  Neoplatonic  element  in  his  theology  will 
be  clearly  shown  in  the  following  extracts.  In  a  few 
places  he  comes  dangerously  near  to  some  of  the 
errors  which  we  found   in   Dionysius. 

God  is  above  all  that  can  be  said  of  Him.  We 
must  not  even  call  Him  ineffable;^  He  is  best  adored 
in  silence,^  best  known  by  nescience,^  best  described 
by  negatives.*  God  is  absolutely  immutable ;  this  is  a 
doctrine  on  which  he  often  insists,  and  which  pervades 
all    his    teaching    about    predestination.       The    world 

1  De  Trin.  vii.  4.  7  ;  de  Doctr.   Christ,  i.  5-  5  ;  Serin.  52.  16  ;  De  Civ, 
Dei,  ix.  16. 

2  CorUr.  Aditn.  Man.  ii.  '^  Dc  Ord,  ii.  16.  44,  18.  47. 
*  Enarrat.  in  Fs.  85.  1 2. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  129 

pre-existed  from  all  eternity  in  the  mind  of  God  ;  in 
the  Word  of  God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  and 
who  is  immutable  Truth,  all  things  and  events  are 
stored  up  together  unchangeably,  and  all  are  one. 
God  sees  the  time-process  not  as  a  process,  but 
gathered  up  into  one  harmonious  whole.  This  seems 
very  near  to  acosmism,  but  there  are  other  passages 
which  are  intended  to  guard  against  this  error.  For 
instance,  in  the  Confessions  ^  he  says  that  "  things 
above  are  better  than  things  below ;  but  all  creation 
together  is  better  than  things  above";  that  is  to  say,  true 
reality  is  something  higher  than  an  abstract  spirituality.^ 
He  is  fond  of  speaking  of  the  Beauty  of  God  ;  and 
as  he  identifies  beauty  with  symmetry,^  it  is  plain  that 
the  formless  "Infinite"  is  for  him,  as  for  every  true 
Platonist,  the  bottom  and  not  the  top  of  the  scale  of 
being.  Plotinus  had  perhaps  been  the  first  to  speak 
of  the  Divine  nature  as  the  meeting-point  of  the  Good, 
the  True,  and  the  Beautiful ;  and  this  conception, 
which  is  of  great  value,  appears  also  in  Augustine. 
There  are  three  grades  of  beauty,  they  both  say, 
corporeal,  spiritual,  and  divine,"*  the  first  being  an 
image  of  the  second,  and  the  second  of  the  third.^ 
"  Righteousness  is  the  truest  beauty,"  ^  Augustine  says 

^  Conf.  vii.  13  ad  fin. 

^  Compare  with  this  sentence  of  the  Confessions  the  statement  of 
Erigena  quoted  below,  that  "  the  things  which  are  not  are  far  better  than 
those  which  are." 

'^  Ep.  120.  20.  St.  Augustine  wrote  in  early  Hfe  an  essay  "On  the 
Beautiful  and  Fit,"  which  he  unhappily  took  no  pains  to  preserve. 

*  De  Ord.  ii.  i6.  42,  59 ;  Plot.  Enn.  i.  6.  4. 

^  De  Lib.  Arb.  ii.  16,  41  ;  Plot.  Enn.  i.  6.  8,  iii.  8.  11. 

®  Enarr.  in  Ps.  xliv.  3  ;  Ep.  120,  20.  Plot.  Enn.  i.  6.  4,  says  with 
more  picturesqueness  than  usual,  koKov  ri  ttjs  BiKaioawris  Kai  aucjipoaivq^ 
irpbffusTTOV,  Kai  oiire  ^(nrepos  ovre  eyos  ovtu  KoXa,, 


I30  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

more  than  once,  "  All  that  is  beautiful  comes  from 
the  highest  Beauty,  which  is  God."  This  is  true 
Platonism,  and  points  to  Mysticism  of  the  symbolic 
kind,  which  we  must  consider  later.  St.  Augustine  is 
on  less  secure  ground  when  he  says  that  evil  is  simply 
the  splash  of  dark  colour  which  gives  relief  to  the 
picture ;  and  when  in  other  places  he  speaks  of  it  as 
simple  privation  of  good.  But  here  again  he  closely 
follows  Plotinus.-^ 

St.  Augustine  was  not  hostile  to  the  idea  of  a 
World  -  Soul ;  he  regards  the  universe  as  a  living 
organism  ;  ^  but  he  often  warns  his  readers  against 
identifying  God  and  the  world,  or  supposing  that  God 
is  merely  immanent  in  creation.  The  Neoplatonic 
teaching  about  the  relation  of  individual  souls  to  the 
World-Soul  may  have  helped  him  to  formulate  his  own 
teaching  about  the  mystical  union  of  Christians  with 
Christ.  His  phrase  is  that  Christ  and  the  Church  are 
"  una  persona." 

St.  Augustine  arranges  the  ascent  of  the  soul  in 
seven  stages.^  But  the  higher  steps  are,  as  usual, 
purgation,  illumination,  and  union.  This  last,  which 
he  calls  "  the  vision  and  contemplation  of  truth,"  is 
"  not  a  step,  but  the  goal  of  the  journey."  When  we 
have  reached  it,  we  shall  understand  the  wholesomeness 
of  the  doctrines  with  which  we  were  fed,  as  children 


1  Ench.  iii.  "etiam  illud  quod  malum  dicitur  bene  ordinatum  est  loco 
suo  positum ;  eminentius  commendat  bona."  St.  Augustine  also  says 
(Eitch.  xi. ),  "cum  omnino  mali  nomen  non  sit  nisi  privationis  mali"; 
cf.  Plot.  Efin.  iii.  2.  5,  SXws  5^  rh  KdKhv  ^Xeiij/Li'  rod  dyaOoD  deriov. 
St.  Augustine  praises  Plotinus  for  his  teaching  on  the  universality  of 
Providence. 

2  De  Civ.  Dei,  iv.  12,  vii.  5.  ^  Dc  Quantitate  Animce.  xxx. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  131 

with  milk  ;  the  meaning  of  such  "  hard  sayings  "  as  the 
resurrection  of  the  body  will  become  plain  to  us. 
Of  the  blessedness  which  attends  this  state  he  says 
elsewhere/  "  I  entered,  and  beheld  with  the  mysterious 
eye  of  my  soul  the  light  that  never  changes,  above  the 
eye  of  my  soul,  above  my  intelligence.  It  was  some- 
thing altogether  different  from  any  earthly  illumination. 
It  was  higher  than  my  intelligence  because  it  made 
me,  and  I  was  lower  because  made  by  it.  He  who 
knows  the  truth  knows  that  light,  and  he  who  knows 
that  light  knows  eternity.  Love  knows  that  light." 
And  again  he  says,^  "  What  is  this  which  flashes  in 
upon  me,  and  thrills  my  heart  without  wounding  it  ? 
I  tremble  and  I  burn ;  I  tremble,  feeling  that  I 
am  unlike  Him ;  I  burn,  feeling  that  I  am  like 
Him." 

One  more  point  must  be  mentioned  before  we  leave 
St.  Augustine.  In  spite  of,  or  rather  because  of,  his 
Platonism,  he  had  nothing  but  contempt  for  the  later 
Neoplatonism,  the  theurgic  and  theosophic  apparatus 
of  lamblichus  and  his  friends.  I  have  said  nothing  yet 
about  the  extraordinary  development  of  magic  in  all 
its  branches,  astrology,  necromancy,  table-rapping,  and 
other  kinds  of  divination,  charms  and  amulets  and 
witchcraft,  which  brought  ridicule  upon  the  last 
struggles  of  paganism.  These  aberrations  of  Nature- 
Mysticism  will  be  dealt  with  in  their  later  develop- 
ments in  my  seventh  Lecture.  St.  Augustine,  after 
mentioning  some  nonsensical  incantations  of  the 
"  abracadabra  "  kind,  says,  "  A  Christian  old  woman  is 
wiser  than  these  philosophers."  In  truth,  the  spirit  of 
^  Conf.  vii.  10.     I  have  quoted  Bigg's  translation.  -  Conf.  xi.  9. 


132  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Plato  lived  in,  and  not  outside  Christianity,  even  in  the 
time  of  Porphyry.  And  on  the  cultus  of  angels  and 
spirits,  which  was  closely  connected  with  theurgic 
superstition,  St.  Augustine's  judgment  is  very  instruct- 
ive. "  Whom  should  I  find,"  he  asks,  "  to  reconcile 
me  to  Thee  ?  Should  I  approach  the  angels  ?  With 
what  prayers,  with  what  rites  ?  Many,  as  I  hear, 
have  tried  this  method,  and  have  come  to  crave 
for  curious  visions,  and  have  been  deceived,  as  they 
deserved."^ 

In  spite  of  St.  Augustine's  Platonism  and  the 
immense  influence  which  he  exercised,  the  Western 
Church  was  slow  in  developing  a  mystical  theology. 
The  Greek  Mysticism,  based  on  emanation,  was  not 
congenial  to  the  Western  mind,  and  the  time  of  the 
German,  with  its  philosophy  of  immanence,  was  not 
yet.  The  tendency  of  Eastern  thinkers  is  to  try  to 
gain  a  view  of  reality  as  a  whole,  complete  and  entire  : 
the  form  under  which  it  most  readily  pictures  it  is 
that  of  space.  The  West  seeks  rather  to  discover  the 
universal  laws  which  in  every  part  of  the  universe  are 
working  out  their  fulfilment.  The  form  under  which  it 
most  readily  pictures  reality  is  that  of  time?-  Thus 
Neoplatonism    had    to   undergo   certain    modifications 


^  St.  Augustine  does  not  reject  the  belief  that  visions  are  granted  by  the 
mediation  of  angels,  but  he  expresses  himself  with  great  caution  on  the 
subject.  Cf.  De  Gen.  ad  litt.  xii.  30,  "  Sunt  quaedam  excellentia  et 
merito  divina,  qu?e  demonstrant  angeli  miris  modis  :  utrum  visa  sua  facili 
quadam  et  prsepotenti  iunctione  vel  commixtione  etiam  nostra  esse 
facientes,  an  scientes  nescio  quo  modo  nostram  in  spiritu  nostro  informare 
visionem,  difficilis  perceptu  et  difficilior  diclu  res  est." 

^  See  Lotze,  Microcosinns,  bk.  viii.  chap.  4,  and  other  places.  We  may 
perhaps  compare  the  Johannine  Kdarfxos  with  the  Synoptic  ai'wc  as  examples 
of  the  two  modes  of  envisaging  reality. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  133 

before   it   could   enter   deeply   into   the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  the  West. 

The  next  great  name  is  that  of  John  Scotus 
Erigena,^  an  English  or  Irish  monk,  who  in  the  ninth 
century  translated  Dionysius  into  Latin.  Erigena  is 
unquestionably  one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  A  bold  and  independent  thinker, 
he  made  it  his  aim  to  elucidate  the  vague Ttheories  of 
Dionysius,  and  to  present  them  as  a  consistent  philo- 
sophical system  worked  out  by  the  help  of  Aristotle 
and  perhaps  Boethius.^  He  intends,  of  course,  to  keep 
within  the  limits  permitted  to  Christian  speculation  ; 
but  in  reality  he  does  not  allow  dogma  to  fetter  him. 
The  Christian  Alexandrians  were,  on  the  whole,  more 
orthodox  than  their  language  ;  Erigena's  language 
partially  veils  the  real  audacity  of  his  speculation.  He 
is  a  mystic  only  by  his  intellectual  affinities  ;^  the 
warmth  of  pious  aspiration  and  love  which  makes 
Dionysius,  amid  all  his  extravagance,  still  a  religious 
writer,  has  cooled  entirely  in  Erigena.  He  can  pray 
with  fervour  and  eloquence  for  intellectual  enlighten- 
ment ;  but  there  was  nothing  of  the  prophet  or  saint' 
about  him,  to  judge  from  his  writings.  Still,  though 
one    might    dispute    his    title    to    be    called    either   a 

^  Eriugena  is,  no  doubt,  the  more  correct  spelling,  but  I  have  preferred 
to  keep  the  name  by  which  he  is  best  known. 

-  Erigena  quotes  also  Origen,  the  two  Gregorys,  Basil,  Maximus, 
Ambrose,  and  Augustine.  Of  pagan  philosophers  he  puts  Plato  first,  but 
holds  Aristotle  in  high  honour. 

^  Stockl  calls  him  "  ein  fiilscher  Mystiker,'"  because  the  Neoplatonic 
("gnostic-rationalistic")  element  takes,  for  him,  the  place  of  super- 
naturalism.  This,  as  will  be  shown  later,  is  in  accordance  with  the  Roman, 
Catholic  view  of  Mysticism,  which  is  not  that  adopted  in  these  Lectures. 
For  us,  Erigena's  defect  as  a  mystic  is  rather  to  be  sought  in  his 
extreme  intellectualism. 


134  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

Christian  or  a  mystic,  we  must  spare  a  few  minutes  to 
this  last  flower  of  Neoplatonism,  which  bloomed  so  late 
on  our  northern  islands. 

God,  says  Erigena,  is  called  Essence  or  Being  ;  but, 
strictly  speaking,  He  is  not  "  Being  "  ;^  for  Being  arises 
in  opposition  to  not-Being,  and  there  is  no  opposition 
to  the  Absolute,  or  God.  Eternity,  the  abode  or 
nature  of  God,  is  homogeneous  and  without  parts,  one, 
simple,  and  indivisible.  "  God  is  the  totality  of  all 
things  which  are  and  are  not,  which  can  and  cannot  be. 
He  is  the  similarity  of  the  similar,  the  dissimilarity  of 
the  dissimilar,  the  opposition  of  opposites,  and  the  con- 
trariety of  contraries.  All  discords  are  resolved  when 
they  are  considered  as  parts  of  the  universal  harmony." 
All  things  begin  from  unity  and  end  in  unity  :  the 
Absolute  can  contain  nothing  self-contradictory.  And 
so  God  cannot  be  called  Goodness,  for  Goodness  is 
opposed  to  Badness,  and  God  is  above  this  distinction. 
Goodness,  however,  is  a  more  comprehensive  term  than 
Being.  There  may  be  Goodness  without  Being,  but 
not  Being  without  Goodness  ;  for  Evil  is  the  negation 
of  Being.  "  The  Scripture  openly  pronounces  this," 
says  Erigena  ;  "  for  we  read,  God  saw  all  things  ;  and 
not^  lo,  they  were,  but,  lo,  they  were  very  good."  All 
things  are,  in  so  far  as  they  are  good.  "  But  the  things 
that  are  not  are  also  called  good,  and  are  far  better 
than  those  which  are."  Being,  in  fact,  is  a  defect, 
"  since  it  separates  from  the  superessential  Good." 
The  feeling  which  prompts  this  strange  expression  is 
that   since   time   and    space   are   themselves    onesided 

^  "  Dum  vero  (divina  bonitas)  incomprehensibilis  intelligitur,  per  excel- 
lentiam  non  immerilo  nihilum  vocitatui." 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  135 

appearances,  a  fixed  limit  must  be  set  to  the  amount  of 
goodness  and  reality  which  can  be  represented  under 
these  conditions.  Erigena  therefore  thinks  that  to 
enter  the  time-process  must  be  to  contract  a  certain 
admixture  of  unreality  or  evil.  In  so  far  as  life 
involves  separateness  (not  distinction),  this  must  be 
true  ;  but  the  manifold  is  only  evil  when  it  is  dis- 
cordant and  antagonistic  to  unity.  That  the  many-in- 
one  should  appear  as  the  one-in-many,  is  the  effect  of 
the  forms  of  time  and  space  in  which  it  appears  ;  the 
statement  that  "  the  things  which  are  not  are  far 
better  than  those  which  are,"  is  only  true  in  the  sense 
that  the  world  of  appearance  is  permeated  by  evil  as 
yet  unsubdued,  which  in  the  Godhead  exists  only  as 
something  overcome  or  transmuted, 

Erigena  says  that  God  is  above  all  the  categories, 
including  that  of  relation.  It  follows  that  the  Persons 
of  the  Trinity,  which  are  only  "  relative  names,"  are 
fused  in  the  Absolute,^  We  may  make  statements 
about  God,  if  we  remember  that  they  are  only 
metaphors  ;  but  whatever  we  deny  about  Him,  we 
deny  truly.-      This  is  the  "  negative  road  "  of  Dionysius,-« 

^  This  is  really  a  revival  of  "  modalism,"  The  unorthodoxy  of  the 
doctrine  becomes  very  apparent  in  some  of  Erigena's  successors. 

^  De  Div.  Nat.  i.  36  :  "  lamdudum  inter  nos  est  confectum  omnia  quae 
vel  sensu  corporeo  vel  intellectu  vel  ratione  cognoscuntur  de  Deo  merito 
creatore  omnium,  posse  prcedicari,  dum  nihil  eorum  quae  de  se  prsedi- 
cantur  pura  veritatis  contemplatio  eum  approbat  esse."  All  affirmations 
about  God  are  made  "non  proprie  sed  translative";  all  negations  "  non 
translative  sedproprie."  Cf.  also  z7;/af.  i.  i.  66,  "  veriusfideliusque  negatur 
in  omnibus  quam  affirmatur"  ;  and  especially  ibid.  i.  5.  26,  "  theophanias 
autem  dico  visibilium  et  invisibilium  species,  quarum  ordine  et  pulcritudine 
cognoscitur  Deus  esse  et  invenitur  non  quid  est,  sed  quia  solummodo  est."" 
Erigena  tries  to  say  (in  his  atrocious  Latin)  that  the  external  world  can 
teach  us  nothing  about  God,  except  the  bare  fact  of  His  existence.     No 


136  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

from  whom  Erigena  borrows  a  number  of  uncouth 
compounds.  But  we  can  see  that  he  valued  this 
method  mainly  as  safeguarding  the  transcendence  of 
God  against  pantheistic  theories  of  immanence.  The 
religious  and  practical  aspects  of  the  doctrine  had  little 
interest  for  him. 

The  destiny  of  all  things  is  to  "  rest  and  be  quiet  " 
in  God.  But  he  tries  to  escape  the  conclusion  that 
all  distinctions  must  disappear ;  rather,  he  says,  the 
return  to  God  raises  creatures  into  a  higher  state,  in 
which  they  first  attain  their  true  being.  All  individual 
types  will  be  preserved  in  the  universal.  He  borrows 
an  illustration,  not  a  very  happy  one,  from  Plotinus. 
"  As  iron,  when  it  becomes  red-hot,  seems  to  be  turned 
into  pure  fire,  but  remains  no  less  iron  than  before ; 
so  when  body  passes  into  soul,  and  rational  substances 
into  God,  they  do  not  lose  their  identity,  but  preserve 
it  in  a  higher  state  of  being." 

Creation  he  regards  as  a  necessary  self-realisation  of 
God.  "  God  was  not,"  he  says,  "  before  He  made  the 
universe."  The  Son  is  the  Idea  of  the  World  ;  "  be 
assured,"  he  says,  "  that  the  Word  is  the  nature  of  all 
things."  The  primordial  causes  or  ideas — Goodness, 
Being,  Life,  etc.,  in  themselves,  which  the  Father  made 
in  the  Son — are  in  a  sense  the  creators  of  the  world, 
for  the  order  of  all  things  is  established  according  to 
them.  God  created  the  \\'orld,  not  out  of  nothing,  nor 
out  of  something,  but  out  of  Himself.^      The  creatures 

passage  could  be  found  to  illustrate  more  clearly  the  real  tendencies  of  the 
negative  road,  and  the  purely  subjective  Mysticism  connected  with  it. 
Erigena  will  not  allow  us  to  infer,  from  the  order  and  beauty  of  the  world, 
that  order  and  beauty  are  Divine  attributes. 

'  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  Erigena  calls  God  "nihilum."     His 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  137 

have  always  pre-existed  "  yonder  "  in  the  Word  ;  God 
has  only  caused  them  to  be  realised  in  time  and 
space. 

"  Thought  and  Action  are  identical  in  God."  "  He 
sees  by  working  and  works  by  seeing." 

Man  is  a  microcosm.  The  fivefold  division  of  nature 
— corporeal,  vital,  sensitive,  rational,  intellectual — is 
all  represented  in  his  organisation.  The  corruptible 
body  is  an  "  accident,"  the  consequence  of  sin.  The 
original  body  was  immortal  and  incorruptible.  This 
body  will  one  day  be  restored. 

Evil  has  no  substance,  and  is  destined  to  disappear. 
"  Nothing  contrary  to  the  Divine  goodness  and  life 
and  blessedness  can  be  coeternal  with  them."  The 
world  must  reach  perfection,  when  all  will  ultimately 
be  God.  "  The  loss  and  absence  of  Christ  is  the 
torment  of  the  whole  creation,  nor  do  I  think  that 
there  is  any  other."  There  is  no  "place  of  punish- 
ment "  anywhere. 

Erigena  is  an  admirable  interpreter  of  the  Alex- 
andrians and  of  Dionysius,  but  he  emphasises  their 
most  dangerous  tendencies.  We  cannot  be  surprised 
that  his  books  were  condemned ;  it  is  more  strange 
that  the  audacious  theories  which  they  repeat  from 
Dionysius  should  have  been  allowed  to  pass  without 
censure  for  so  long.  Indeed,  the  freedom  of  specula- 
tion accorded  to  the  mystics  forms  a  remarkable 
exception  to  the  zeal  for  exact  orthodoxy  which 
characterised  the  general  policy  of  the  early  Church. 

words  about  creation  are,  "Ac  sic  de  nihilo  facit  omnia,  de  sua  videlicet 
superessentialitate  producit  essentias,  de  supervitalitate  vitas,  de  super- 
intellectualitate  intellectus,  de  negatione  omnium  qux  sunt  et  qucc  non 
sunt,  affirmationes  omnium  qua;  sunt  et  quce  non  sunt.'' 


138  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

The  explanation  is  that  in  the  East  Mysticism  has 
seldom  been  revolutionary,  and  has  compensated  for 
its  speculative  audacity  by  the  readiness  of  its  outward 
conformity.  Moreover,  the  theories  of  Dionysius  about 
the  earthly  and  heavenly  hierarchies  were  by  no  means 
unwelcome  to  sacerdotalism.  In  the  West  things  were 
different.  Mysticism  there  has  always  been  a  spirit  of 
reform,  generally  of  revolt.  There  is  much  even  in 
Erigena,  whose  main  affinities  were  with  the  East, 
which  forecasts  the  Reformation.  He  is  the  father, 
not  only  of  Western  Mysticism  and  scholasticism,  but 
of  rationalism  as  well.^  But  the  danger  which  lurked 
in  his  speculations  was  not  at  first  recognised.  His 
book  on  predestination  was  condemned  in  855  and  859 
for  its  universalist  doctrine,^  and  two  hundred  years 
later  his  Eucharistic  doctrine,  revived  by  Berengar,  was 
censured.^  But  it  was  not  till  the  thirteenth  century 
that  a  general  condemnation  was  passed  upon  him. 
This  judgment  followed  the  appearance  of  a  strongly 
pantheistic  or  acosmistic  school  of  mystics,  chief 
among  whom  was  Amalric  of  Bena,  a  master  of 
theology  at  Paris  about  1200.  Amalric  is  a  very 
interesting  figure,  for  his  teaching  exhibits  all  the 
features  which   are   most   characteristic   of  extravagant 

^  So  Kaulich  shows  in  his  monograph  on  the  speculative  system  of 
Erigena. 

-  Erigena  was  roused  by  a  work  on  predestination,  written  by  Gottes- 
chalk,  and  advocating  Calvinistic  views,  to  protest  against  the  doctrine 
that  God,  who  is  hfe,  can  possibly  predestine  anyone  to  eternal  death. 

^  Berengar  objected  to  the  crudely  materialistic  theories  of  the  real 
presence  which  were  then  prevalent.  He  protested  against  the  statement 
that  the  transmutation  of  the  elements  takes  place  "vere  et  sensualiter," 
and  that  "  portiunculse  "  of  the  body  of  Christ  lie  upon  the  altar.  "The 
mouth,"  he  said,  "  receives  the  sacrament,  the  inner  man  the  true  body  of 
Christ." 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  139 

Mysticism  in  the  West — its  strong  belief  in  Divine 
immanence,  not  only  in  the  Church,  but  in  the  in- 
dividual ;  its  uncompromising  rationalism,  contempt  for 
ecclesiastical  forms,  and  tendency  to  evolutionary 
optimism.  Among  the  doctrines  attributed  to  Amalric 
and  his  followers  are  a  pantheistic  identification  of  man 
with  God,  and  a  negation  of  matter  ;  they  were  said 
to  teach  that  unconsecrated  bread  was  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  that  God  spoke  through  Ovid  (a  curious 
choice  !),  as  well  as  through  St.  Augustine,  They 
denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  traditional 
eschatology,  saying  that  "  he  who  has  the  knowledge 
of  God  in  himself  has  paradise  within  him."  They 
insisted  on  a  progressive  historical  revelation — the 
reign  of  the  Father  began  with  Abraham,  that  of  the 
Son  with  Christ,  that  of  the  Spirit  with  themselves. 
They  despised  sacraments,  believing  that  the  Spirit 
works  without  means.  They  taught  that  he  who  lives 
in  love  can  do  no  wrong,  and  were  suspected,  probably 
truly,  of  the  licentious  conduct  which  naturally  follows 
from  such  a  doctrine.  This  antinomianism  is  no  part 
of  true  Mysticism  ;  but  it  is  often  found  in  conjunction 
with  mystical  speculation  among  the  half-educated. 
It  is  the  vulgar  perversion  of  Plotinus'  doctrine  that 
matter  is  nothing,  and  that  the  highest  part  of  our 
nature  can  take  no  stain.^  We  find  evidence  of 
immorality  practised  "  in  nomine  caritatis  "  among  the 
Gnostics  and  Manicheans  of  the  first  centuries,  and 
these  heresies  never  really  became  extinct.  The  sects 
of   the    "  Free     Spirit,"    who    flourished    later    in    the 

'  Similar  leaching  from  the  sacred  books  of  the  East  is  quoted  by  E. 
Caird,  Evolution  of  Religion,  vol.  i.  p.  355. 


I40  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

thirteenth  century,  had  an  even  worse  reputation  than 
the  Amah-icians.  They  combined  with  their  Pantheism 
a  Determinism  which  destroyed  all  sense  of  responsi- 
bility. On  the  other  hand,  the  followers  of  Ortlieb  of 
Strassburg,  about  the  same  period,  advocated  an 
extreme  asceticism  based  on  a  dualistic  or  Manichean 
view  of  the  world  ;  and  they  combined  with  this  error 
an  extreme  rationalism,  teaching  that  the  historical 
Christ  was  a  mere  man ;  that  the  Gospel  history  has 
only  a  symbolical  truth  ;  that  the  soul  only,  without  the 
body,  is  immortal ;  and  that  the  Pope  and  his  priests 
are  servants  of  Satan. 

The  problem  for  the  Church  was  how  to  encourage 
the  warm  love  and  faith  of  the  mystics  without  giving 
the  rein  to  these  mischievous  errors.  The  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  produced  several  famous  writers, 
who  attempted  to  combine  scholasticism  and  Mysticism.^ 
The  leaders  in  this  attempt  were  Bernard,^  Hugo  and 
Richard  of  St.  Victor,  Bonaventura,  Albertus  Magnus, 

^  This  is  the  accepted  phrase  for  the  work  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
century  theologians.  We  might  also  say  that  they  modified  uncom- 
promising Platonic  Realism  by  Aristotelian  science.  Cf.  Harnack,  History 
of  Dogma,  vol.  vi.  p.  43  (English  translation):  "Under  what  other 
auspices  could  this  great  structure  be  erected  than  under  those  of  that 
Aristotelian  Realism,  which  was  at  bottom  a  dialectic  between  the  Platonic 
Realism  and  Nominalism ;  and  which  was  represented  as  capable  of 
uniting  immanence  and  transcendence,  history  and  miracle,  the  immut- 
ability of  God  and  mutability,  Idealism  and  Realism,  reason  and  authority."' 

-  The  great  importance  of  Bernard  in  the  history  of  Mysticism  does  not 
lie  in  the  speculative  side  of  his  teaching,  in  which  he  depends  almost 
entirely  upon  Augustine.  His  great  achievement  was  to  recall  devout  and 
loving  contemplation  to  the  image  of  the  crucified  Christ,  and  to  found 
that  worship  of  our  Saviour  as  the  "Bridegroom  of  the  Soul,"  which  in 
the  next  centuries  inspired  so  much  fervid  devotion  and  lyrical  sacred 
poetry.  The  romantic  side  of  Mysticism,  for  good  and  for  evil,  received 
its  greatest  stimulus  in  Bernard's  Poems  and  in  his  Sermons  on  the 
Canticles.     This  subject  is  dealt  with  in  Appendix  E. 


FLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  141 

and  (later)  Gerson.  Their  works  are  not  of  great  value 
as  contributions  to  religious  philosophy,  for  the  School- 
men were  too  much  afraid  of  their  authorities — Catholic 
tradition  and  Aristotle — to  probe  difficulties  to  the 
bottom ;  and  the  mystics,  who,  by  making  the  renewed 
life  of  the  soul  their  starting-point,  were  more  inde- 
pendent, were  debarred,  by  their  ignorance  of  Greek, 
from  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  their  intellectual  ances- 
tors. But  in  the  history  of  Mysticism  they  hold  an 
important  place.^  Speculation  being  for  them  restricted 
within  the  limits  of  Church-dogma,  they  were  obliged 
to  be  more  psychological  and  less  metaphysical  than 
Dionysius  or  Erigena.  The  Victorines  insist  often  on 
self-knowledge  as  the  way  to  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  on  self-purification  as  more  important  than  philo- 
sophy. "  The  way  to  ascend  to  God,"  says  Hugo, 
"  is  to  descend  into  oneself."  -  "  The  ascent  is  through 
self  above  self,"  says  Richard ;  we  are  to  rise  on 
stepping-stones  of  our  dead  selves  to  higher  things. 
"  Let  him  that  thirsts  to  see  God  clean  his  mirror,  let 
him  make  his  own  spirit  bright,"  says  Richard  again. 
The  Victorines  do  not  disparage  reason,  which  is  the 
organ  by  which  mankind  in  general  apprehend  the 
things  of  God ;  but  they  regard  ecstatic  contemplation 
as  a  supra-rational  state  or  faculty,  which  can  only  be 

^  Stockl  says  of  Hugo  that  the  course  of  development  of  mediaeval 
Mysticism  cannot  be  understood  without  a  knowledge  of  his  writings. 
Stockl's  own  account  is  very  full  and  clear. 

^  The  "eye  of  contemplation"  was  given  us  "to  see  God  within  our- 
selves"; this  eye  has  been  blinded  by  sin.  The  "eye  of  reason"  was 
given  us  "  to  see  ourselves  "  ;  this  has  been  injured  by  sin.  Only  th"e  "  eye 
of  flesh  "  remains  in  its  pristine  clearness.  In  things  "above  reason  "  we 
must  trust  to  faith,  "quce  non  adiuvatur  ratione  ulla,  quoniam  non  capit 
ea  ratio." 


142  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

reached  per  mentis  excessum,  and  in  which  the  naked 
truth  is  seen,  no  longer  in  a  glass  darkly.^ 

This  highest  state,  in  which  "  Reason  dies  in  giving 
birth  to  Ecstasy,  as  Rachel  died  in  giving  birth  to 
Benjamin,"  is  not  on  the  high  road  of  the  spiritual  life.  It 
is  a  rare  gift,  bestowed  by  supernatural  grace.  Richard 
says  that  the  first  stage  of  contemplation  is  an  ex- 
pansion of  the  soul,  the  second  an  exaltation,  the  third 
an  alienation.  The  first  arises  from  human  effort,  the 
second  from  human  effort  assisted  by  Divine  grace,  the 
third  from  Divine  grace  alone.  The  predisposing  con- 
ditions for  the  third  state  are  devotion  {devoiio),  admira- 
tion {admiratid)y  and  joy  (exaltatio)  ;  but  these  cannot 
produce  ecstasy,  which  is  a  purely  supernatural  infusion. 

This  sharp  opposition  between  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural,  which  is  fully  developed  first  by  Richard 
of  St.  Victor,  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  Catholic 
Mysticism.  It  is  an  abandonment  of  the  great  aim 
which  the  earlier  Christian  idealists  had  set  before 
themselves,  namely,  to  find  spiritual  law  in  the  normal 
course  of  nature,  and  the  motions  of  the  Divine  Word 
in  the  normal  processes  of  mind.  St.  John's  great 
doctrine  of  the  Logos  as  a  cosmic  principle  is  now 
dropped.       Roman    Catholic    apologists  ^    claim    that 


^  Richard,  who  is  more  ecstatic  than  Hugo,  gives  the  following  account 
of  this  state:  "Per  mentis  excessum  extra  semetipsum  ductus  homo  .  .  . 
lumen  non  per  speculum  in  renigmatesed  in  simplici  veritate  contemplatur." 
In  this  state  "  we  forget  all  that  is  without  and  all  that  is  within  us." 
Reason  and  all  other  faculties  are  obscured.  What  then  is  our  security 
against  delusions?  "The  transfigured  Christ,"  he  says,  "must  be 
accompanied  by  Moses  and  Elias";  that  is  to  say,  visions  must  not  be 
believed  which  conflict  with  the  authority  of  Scripture. 

^  See,  especially,  Stockl,  Geschichte  der  riulosophie  des  Mittela/ters, 
vol.  i.  pp.  382-384. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  143 

Mysticism  was  thus  set  free  from  the  "  idealistic 
pantheism  "  of  the  Neoplatonist,  and  from  the  "  Gnostic- 
Manichean  duahsm  "  which  accompanies  it.  The  world 
of  space  and  time  (they  say)  is  no  longer  regarded,  as 
it  was  by  the  Neoplatonist,  as  a  fainter  effluence  from 
an  ideal  world,  nor  is  human  individuality  endangered 
by  theories  of  immanence.  Both  nature  and  man 
regain  a  sort  of  independence.  We  once  more  tread 
as  free  men  on  solid  ground,  while  occasional  "  super- 
natural phenomena  "  are  not  wanting  to  testify  to  the 
existence  of  higher  powers. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Logos-doctrine  (as  understood 
by  St.  Clement)  is  exceptionally  liable  to  perversion  ; 
but  the  remedy  of  discarding  it  is  worse  than  the 
disease.  The  unscriptural  ^  and  unphilosophical  cleft 
between  natural  and  supernatural  introduces  a  more 
intractable  dualism  than  that  of  Origen.  The  faculty 
which,  according  to  this  theory,  possesses  immediate 
intuition  into  the  things  of  God  is  not  only  irrespon- 
sible to  reason,  but  stands  in  no  relation  to  it.  It 
ushers  us  into  an  entirely  new  world,  where  the  familiar 
criteria  of  truth  and  falsehood  are  inapplicable.  And 
what  it  reveals  to  us  is  not  a  truer  and  deeper  view  of 
the  actual,  but  a  wholly  independent  cosmic  principle 
which  invades  the  world  of  experience  as  a  disturbing 
force,  spasmodically  subverting  the  laws  of  nature  in 
order  to  show  its  power  over  them.^     P'or  as  soon  as 

^  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  St.  Paul's  distinction  between 
natural  and  spiritual  (see  esp.  i  Cor.  ii. )  is  wholly  different. 

-  Contrast  the  Plotinian  doctrine  of  ecstasy  with  the  following  :  "  Dieu 
eleve  a  son  gre  aux  plus  hauts  sommets,  sans  aucun  merite  prealable. 
Osanne  de  Mantoue  recoit  le  don  de  la  contemplation  a  peine  agee  de  six 
ans.     Christine  est  fiancee  a  dix  ans,  pendant  une  extase  de  trois  jours  ; 


144  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

the  formless  intuition  of  contemplation  begins  to  ex- 
press itself  in  symbols,  these  symbols,  when  untested 
by  reason,  are  transformed  into  hallucinations.  The 
warning  of  Plotinus,  that  "  he  who  tries  to  rise  above 
reason  falls  outside  of  it,"  receives  a  painful  corrobora- 
tion in  such  legends  as  that  of  St.  Christina,  who  by 
reason  of  her  extreme  saintliness  frequently  soared 
over  the  tops  of  trees.  The  consideration  of  these 
alleged  "  mystical  phenomena "  belongs  to  objective 
Mysticism,  which  I  hope  to  deal  with  in  a  later 
Lecture.  Here  I  will  only  say  that  the  scholastic- 
mystical  doctrine  of  "  supernatural "  interventions, 
which  at  first  sight  seems  so  attractive,  has  led 
in  practice  to  the  most  barbarous  and  ridiculous 
superstitions.^ 

Another  good  specimen  of  scholastic  Mysticism  is 
the  short  treatise,  De  adhcerendo  Deo,  of  Albertus 
Magnus.       It   shows   very   clearly  how   the  "  negative 

Marie  d'Agreda  re5ut  des  illuminations  des  sa  premiere  enfance  "  (Ribet). 
Since  Divine  favours  are  believed  to  be  bestowed  in  a  purely  arbitrary 
manner,  the  fancies  of  a  child  left  alone  in  the  dark  are  as  good  as  the 
deepest  intuitions  of  saint,  poet,  or  philosopher.  Moreover,  God  some- 
times "asserts  His  liberty"  by  "elevating  souls  suddenly  and  without 
transition  from  the  abyss  of  sin  to  the  highest  summits  of  perfection,  just  as 
in  nature  He  asserts  it  by  miracles  "  (Ribet).  Such  teaching  is  interesting 
as  showing  how  the  admission  of  caprice  in  the  world  of  phenomena  reacts 
upon  the  moral  sense  and  depraves  our  conception  of  God  and  salvation. 
The  faculty  of  contemplation,  according  to  Roman  Catholic  teaching,  is 
acquired  * '  either  by  virtue  or  by  gratuitous  favour. "  The  dualism  of 
natural  and  supernatural  thus  allows  men  to  claim  independent  merit,  while 
the  interventions  of  God  are  arbitrary  and  unaccountable. 

*  Those  who  are  interested  to  see  how  utterly  defenceless  this  theory 
leaves  us  against  the  silliest  delusions,  may  consult  with  advantage  the 
Dictionary  of  Mysticism,  by  the  Abbe  Migne  (passim),  or,  if  they  wish  to 
ascend  nearer  to  the  fountain-head  of  these  legends,  there  are  the  sixty  folio 
volumes  of  Acta  Sanctorum,  compiled  by  the  Bollandists.  Gorres  and 
Ribet  are  also  very  full  of  these  stories. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  145 

road  "  had  become  the  highway  of  mediaeval  Catholicism, 
and  how  little  could  be  hoped  for  civilisation  and 
progress  from  the  continuance  of  such  teaching. 
"  When  St.  John  says  that  God  is  a  Spirit,"  says  Albert 
in  the  first  paragraph  of  his  treatise,  "  and  that  He 
must  be  worshipped  in  spirit,  he  means  that  the  mind 
must  be  cleared  of  all  images.  When  thou  prayest, 
shut  thy  door — that  is,  the  doors  of  thy  senses  .  .  . 
keep  them  barred  and  bolted  against  all  phantasms  and 
images.  .  .  .  Nothing  pleases  God  more  than  a  mind 
free  from  all  occupations  and  distractions.  .  .  .  Such  a 
mind  is  in  a  manner  transformed  into  God,  for  it  can 
think  of  nothing,  and  understand  nothing,  and  love 
nothing,  except  God  :  other  creatures  and  itself  it  only 
sees  in  God.  .  .  .  He  who  penetrates  into  himself,  and 
so  transcends  himself,  ascends  truly  to  God.  .  .  .  He 
whom  I  love  and  desire  is  above  all  that  is  sensible  and 
all  that  is  intelligible ;  sense  and  imagination  cannot 
bring  us  to  Him,  but  only  the  desire  of  a  pure  heart. 
This  brings  us  into  the  darkness  of  the  mind,  whereby 
we  can  ascend  to  the  contemplation  even  of  the 
mystery  of  the  Trinity.  .  .  .  Do  not  think  about  the 
world,  nor  about  thy  friends,  nor  about  the  past, 
present,  or  future ;  but  consider  thyself  to  be  outside 
the  world  and  alone  with  God,  as  if  thy  soul  were 
already  separated  from  the  body,  and  had  no  longer 
any  interest  in  peace  or  war,  or  the  state  of  the  world. 
Leave  thy  body,  and  fix  thy  gaze  on  the  uncreated 
light.  .  .  .  Let  nothing  come  between  thee  and  God. 
.  .  .  The  soul  in  contemplation  views  the  world  from 
afar  off,  just  as,  when  we  proceed  to  God  by  the  way  of 
abstraction,  we  deny  Him,  first  all  bodily  and  sensible 
10 


146  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

attributes,  then  intelligible  qualities,  and,  lastly,  that 
bemg  (esse)  which  keeps  Him  among  created  things. 
This,  according  to  Dionysius,  is  the  best  mode  of  union 
with  God." 

Bonaventura  resembles  Albertus  in  reverting  more 
decidedly  than  the  Victorines  to  the  Dionysian  tradi- 
tion. He  expatiates  on  the  passivity  and  nakedness 
of  the  soul  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  enter  into 
the  Divine  darkness,  and  elaborates  with  tiresome 
pedantry  his  arbitrary  schemes  of  faculties  and  stages. 
However,  he  gains  something  by  his  knowledge  of 
Aristotle,  which  he  uses  to  correct  the  Neoplatonic 
doctrine  of  God  as  abstract  Unity.  "  God  is  *  ideo 
omnimodum,' "  he  says  finely,  "  quia  summe  unum." 
He  is  "  totum  intra  omnia  et  totum  extra" — a  succinct 
statement  that  God  is  both  immanent  and  tran- 
scendent. His  proof  of  the  Trinity  is  original  and 
profound.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  Good  to  impart 
itself,  and  so  the  highest  Good  must  be  "  summe 
diffusivum  sui,"  which  can  only  be  in  hypostatic 
union. 

The  last  great  scholastic  mystic  is  Gerson,  who  lived 
from  1363  to  1429.  He  attempts  to  reduce  Mystic- 
ism to  an  exact  science,  tabulating  and  classifying  all 
the  teaching  of  his  predecessors.  A  very  brief  summary 
of  his  system  is  here  given. 

Gerson  distinguishes  symbolical,  natural,  and  myst- 
ical theology,  confining  the  last  to  the  method  which 
rests  on  inner  experiences,  and  proceeds  by  the 
negative  road.  The  experiences  of  the  mystic  have 
a  greater  certainty  than  any  external  revelations  can 
possess. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  147 

Gerson's  psychology  may  be  given  in  outline  as  fol- 
lows :  The  cognitive  power  has  three  faculties:  (i) 
simple  intelligence  or  natural  light,  an  outflow  from  the 
highest  intelligence,  God  Himself;  (2)  the  understand- 
ing, which  is  on  the  frontier  between  the  two  worlds ; 
(3)  sense-consciousness.  To  each  of  these  three 
faculties  answers  one  of  the  affective  faculties :  ( i ) 
synteresis;^  (2)  understanding,  rational  desire;  (3) 
sense-affections.  To  these  again  correspond  three 
activities:  (i)  contemplation;  (2)  meditation;-  (3) 
thought. 

Mystical  theology  differs  from  speculative  [ix.  scho- 
lastic), in  that  mystical  theology  belongs  to  the 
affective  faculties,  not  the  cognitive  ;  that  it  does  not 
depend  on  logic,  and  is  therefore  open  even  to  the 
ignorant ;  that  it  is  not  open  to  the  unbelieving,  since 
it  rests  upon  faith  and  love  ;  and  that  it  brings  peace, 
whereas  speculation  breeds  unrest. 

The  "  means  of  mystical  theology  "  are  seven  :  (i.) 
the  call  of  God  ;  (ii.)  certainty  that  one  is  called  to  the 
contemplative  life — all  are  not  so  ;  (iii.)  freedom  from 
encumbrances ;  (iv.)  concentration  of  interests  upon 
God  ;  (v.)  perseverance ;  (vi.)  asceticism  ;  but  the  body 
must  not  be  maltreated  if  it  is  to  be  a  good  servant ; 
(vii.)  shutting  the  eye  to  all  sense  perceptions.^ 

'  See  Appendix  C. 

^  The  difference  between  contemplation  and  meditation  is  explained  by 
all  the  mediffival  mystics.  Meditation  is  "discursive,"  contemplation  is 
"  mentis  in  Deum  suspensse  elevatio."  Richard  of  St.  Victor  states  the 
distinction  epigrammatically — "  per  meditationem  rimamur,  per  contempla- 
tionem  niiramur."  ("Admiratio  est  actus  consequens  contemplationem 
sublimis  veritatis." — Thomas  Aquinas.) 

^  This  arbitrary  schematism  is  very  characteristic  of  this  type  of 
Mysticism,  and  shows  its  affinity  to  Indian  philosophy.     Compare  "the 


148  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Such  teaching  as  this  is  of  small  value  or  interest. 
Mysticism  itself  becomes  arid  and  formal  in  the  hands 
of  Gerson.  The  whole  movement  was  doomed  to 
failure,  inasmuch  as  scholasticism  was  philosophy  in 
chains,  and  the  negative  road  was  Mysticism  blind- 
folded. No  fruitful  reconciliation  between  philosophy 
and  piety  could  be  thus  achieved.  The  decay  of 
scholasticism  put  an  end  to  these  attempts  at  com- 
promise. Henceforward  the  mystics  either  discard 
metaphysics,  and  develop  their  theology  on  the  devo- 
tional and  ascetic  side — the  course  which  was  followed 
by  the  later  Catholic  mystics ;  or  they  copy  Erigena  in 
his  independent  attitude  towards  tradition. 

In  this  Lecture  we  are  following  the  line  of  specu- 
lative Mysticism,  and  we  have  now  to  consider  the 
greatest  of  all  speculative  mystics,  Meister  Eckhart, 
who  was  born  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century.^  He  was  a  Dominican  monk,  prior  of  Erfurt 
and  vicar  of  Thuringen,  and  afterwards  vicar-general 
for  Bohemia.  He  preached  a  great  deal  at  Cologne 
about  1325;  and  before  this  period  had  come  into  close 
k-elations  with  the  Beghards  and  Brethren  of  the  Free 
Spirit — societies  of  men  and  women  who,  by  their 
implicit  faith  in  the  inner  light,  resembled  the  Quakers, 
though  many  of  them,  as  has  been  said,  were  accused 
of  immoral  theories  and  practices.  His  teaching  soon 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Inquisition,  and  some  of 
his  doctrines  were  formally  condemned  by  the  Pope  in 
1329,  immediately  after  his  death. 

eightfold  path  of  Buddha,"  and  a  hundred  other  shnilar  classifications  in 
the  sacred  books  of  the  East. 

'  The  date  usually  given,  1260,  is  probably  too  late  ;  but  the  exact  year 
cannot  be  determined. 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  149 

The  aim  of  Eckhart's  religious  philosophy  is  to  find 
a  speculative  basis  for  the  doctrines  of  the  Church, 
which  shall  at  the  same  time  satisfy  the  claims  of 
spiritual  religion.  His  aims  are  purely  constructive, 
and  he  shows  a  distaste  for  polemical  controversy; 
The  writers  whom  he  chiefly  cites  by  name  are  Dio- 
nysius,  Augustine,  Gregory,  and  Boethius ;  but  he 
must  have  read  Erigena,  and  probably  Averroes, 
writers  to  whom  a  Catholic  could  hardly  confess  his 
obligations,^  He  also  frequently  introduces  quotations 
with  the  words,  "  A  master  saith."  The  "  master  "  is 
nearly  always  Thomas  Aquinas,  to  whom  Eckhart 
was  no  doubt  greatly  indebted,  though  it  would  be 
a  great  mistake  to  say,  as  some  have  done,  that  all 
Eckhart  can  be  found  in  the  Sumnia,  For  instance, 
he  sets  himself  in  opposition  to  Thomas  about  the 
"  spark,"  which  Thomas  regarded  as  a  faculty  of  the 
soul,  while  Eckhart,  in  his  later  writings,  says  that 
it  is  uncreated.^       His  double  object   leads   him    into 

^  Prof.  Karl  Pearson  {Mind,  1886)  says,  "The  Mysticism  of  Eckhart 
owes  its  leading  ideas  to  Averroes."  He  traces  the  doctrine  of  the  NoD? 
■n-oir]TiK6s  from  Aristotle,  de  Aniiiia,  through  the  Arabs  to  Eckhart,  and  finds 
a  close  resemblance  between  the  "prototypes"  or  "ideas"  of  Eckhart 
and  the  "  Dinge  an  sich  "  of  Kant.  But  Eckhart's  affinities  with  Plotinus 
and  Hegel  seem  to  me  to  be  closer  than  those  which  he  shows  with  Aris- 
totle and  Kant.  On  the  connexion  with  Averroes,  Lasson  says  that  while 
there  is  a  close  resemblance  between  the  Eckhartian  doctrine  of  the 
"  Seelengrund"  and  Averroes'  Intdkctus  Agents  as  the  universal  principle 
of  reason  in  all  men  (monopsychism),  they  differ  in  this — that  with  Aver- 
roes personality  is  a  phase  or  accident,  but  with  Eckhart  the  eternal  is 
immanent  in  the  personality  in  such  a  way  that  the  personality  itself  has 
a  part  in  eternity  (Meister  Eckhart  der  Mystiker,  pp.  348,  349).  Person- 
ality is  for  Eckhart  the  eternal  ground-form  of  all  true  being,  and  the 
notion  of  Person  is  the  centre-point  of  his  system.  He  says,  "  The  word 
/aw  none  can  truly  speak  but  God  alone."  The  individual  must  try  to 
become  a  person,  as  the  Son  of  God  is  a  Person. 

-  Denifle  has  devoted  great  pains  to  proving  that  Eckhart   in  his  Latin 


I50  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

some  inconsistencies.  Intellectually,  he  is  drawn  to- 
wards a  semi-pantheistic  idealism ;  his  heart  makes 
him  an  Evangelical  Christian.  But  though  it  is 
possible  to  find  contradictions  in  his  writings,  his 
transparent  intellectual  honesty  and  his  great  powers 
of  thought,  combined  with  deep  devoutness  and  child- 
like purity  of  soul,  make  him  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing figures  in  the  history  of  Christian  philosophy.    . 

Eckhart  wrote  in  German  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  wrote 
for  the  public,  and  not  for  the  learned  only.  His 
desire  to  be  intelligible  to  the  general  reader  led  him 
to  adopt  an  epigrammatic  antithetic  style,  and  to  omit 
qualifying  phrases.  This  is  one  reason  why  he  laid 
himself  open  to  so  many  accusations  of  heresy.^ 

Eckhart  distinguishes  between  "  the  Godhead  "  and 
"  God."  The  Godhead  is  the  abiding  potentiality  of 
Being,  containing  within  Himself  all  distinctions,  as 
yet  undeveloped.  He  therefore  cannot  be  the  object 
of  knowledge,  nor  of  worship,  being  "  Darkness  "  and 
"  Formlessness."  -    The  Triune  God  is  evolved  from  the 

works  is  very  largely  dependent  upon  Aquinas.  His  conclusions  are  wel- 
comed and  gladly  adopted  by  Harnack,  who,  like  Ritschl,  has  little  sym- 
pathy with  the  German  mystics,  and  considers  that  Christian  Mysticism  is 
really  "  Catholic  piety."  "  It  will  never  be  possible,"  he  says,  "  to  make 
Mysticism  Protestant  without  flying  in  the  face  of  history  and  Catholicism." 
No  one  certainly  would  be  guilty  of  the  absurdity  of  "  making  Mysticism 
Protestant"  ;  but  it  is,  I  think,  even  more  absurd  to  "make  it  (Roman) 
Catholic,"  though  such  a  view  may  unite  the  suffrages  of  Romanists  and 
Neo-Kantians.     See  Appendix  A,  p.  346. 

^  Preger  (vol.  iii.  p.  140)  says  that  Eckhart  did  not  try  to  be  popular. 
But  it  is  clear,  I  think,  that  he  did  try  to  make  his  philosophy  intelligible 
to  the  average  educated  man,  though  his  teaching  is  less  ethical  and  more 
speculative  than  that  of  Tauler. 

2  Sometimes  he  speaks  of  the  Godhead  as  above  the  opposition  of  being 
and  not  being  ;  but  at  other  times  he  regards  the  Godhead  as  the  universal 
Ground  or  Substance  of  the  ideal  world.  "All  things  in  God  are  one 
thing."     "God  is  neither  this  nor  that."      Compare,  too,  the  following 


PLATONISM   AND  MYSTICISM  151 

Godhead.  The  Son  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  His 
uttered  thought ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  "-the  Flower 
of  the  Divine  Tree,"  the  mutual  love  which  unites  the 
Father  and  the  Son.  Eckhart  quotes  the  words 
which  St.  Augustine  makes  Christ  say  of  Himself:  "  I 
am  come  as  a  Word  from  the  heart,  as  a  ray  from  the 
sun,  as  heat  from  the  fire,  as  fragrance  from  the  flower, 
as  a  stream  from  a  perennial  fountain."  He  insists 
that  the  generation  of  the  Son  is  a  continual  process. 

The  universe  is  the  expression  of  the  whole  thought 
of  the  Father ;  it  is  the  language  of  the  Word.  Eck- 
hart loves  startling  phrases,  and  says  boldly,  "  Nature 
is  the  lower  part  of  the  Godhead,"  and  "  Before  crea- 
tion, God  was  not  God."  These  statements  are  not 
so  crudely  pantheistic  as  they  sound.  He  argues  that 
without  the  Son  the  Father  would  not  be  God,  but 
only  undeveloped  potentiality  of  being.  The  three 
Persons  are  not  merely  accidents  and  modes  of  the 
Divine  Substance,  but  are  inherent  in  the  Godhead.^ 
And  so  there  can  never  have  been  a  time  when  the 
Son  was  not.  But  the  generation  of  the  Son  neces- 
sarily involves  the  creation  of  an  ideal  world ;  for  the 
Son  is  Reason,  and  Reason  is  constituted  by  a  cosmos 
of  ideas.  When  Eckhart  speaks  of  creation  and  of  the 
world  which  had  no  beginning,  he  means,  not  the  world 
of  phenomena,  but  the  world  of  ideas,  in  the  Platonic 

passage  :  "  (Gottes)  einfeltige  natur  ist  von  formen  formlos,  von  werden 
werdelos,  von  wesen  wesenlos,  und  von  sachen  sachelos,  und  darum  entgeht 
sie  in  alien  werdenden  dingen,  und  die  endliche  dinge  miissen  da  enden." 

^  I  here  agree  with  Preger  against  Lasson.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  one  of 
the  most  important  and  characteristic  parts  of  Eckhart's  system,  that  the 
Trinity  is  not  for  him  (as  it  was  for  Plierotheus)  an  emanation  or  appear- 
ance of  the  Absolute.  But  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  are  passages  in 
Eckhart  which  support  the  other  view. 


152  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

sense.  The  ideal  world  is  the  complete  expression  of 
the  thought  of  God,  and  is  above  space  and  time.  He 
calls  it  "  non-natured  nature,"  as  opposed  to  "  diu  gena- 
tiirte  nature,"  the  world  of  phenomena.^  Eckhart's 
doctrine  here  differs  from  that  of  Plotinus  in  a  very  im- 
portant particular.  The  Neoplatonists  always  thought 
of  emanation  as  a  diffusion  of  rays  from  a  sun,  which 
necessarily  decrease  in  heat  and  brightness  as  they 
recede  from  the  central  focus.  It  follows  that  the 
second  Person  of  the  Trinity,  the  Nov<i  or  Intelligence, 
is  subordinate  to  the  First,  and  the  Third  to  the 
Second.  But  with  Eckhart  there  is  no  subordination. 
The  Son  is  the  pure  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory, 
and  the  express  image  of  His  Person.  "  The  eternal 
fountain  of  things  is  the  Father ;  the  image  of  things 
in  Him  is  the  Son,  and  love  for  this  Image  is  the 
Holy  Ghost."  All  created  things  abide  "  formless " 
(as  possibilities)  in  the  ground  of  the  Godhead,  and 
all  are  realised  in  the  Son.  The  Alexandrian  Fathers, 
in  identifying  the  Logos  with  the  Platonic  NoO?,  the 
bearer  of  the  World-Idea,  had  found  it  difficult  to 
avoid  subordinating  Him  to  the  Father.  Eckhart 
escapes  this  heresy,  but  in  consequence  his  view  of 
the  world  is  more  pantheistic.  For  his  intelligible 
world  is  really  God — it  is  the  whole  content  of  the 
Divine  mind.^     The  question  has  been  much  debated, 

'  Compare  Spinoza's  "  natura  naturata." 

-  The  ideas  are  "uncreated  creatures  "  ;  they  are  "  creatures  in  God  but 
not  in  themselves."  Preger  states  Eckhart's  doctrine  thus:  "  Gott  denkt 
sein  Wesen  in  untergeordnete  Weise  nachahmbar,  und  der  Reflex  dieses 
Denkens  in  dem  gottlichen  Bewusstsein,  die  Vorstellungen  hievon,  sind 
die  Ideen."  But  in  what  sense  is  the  ideal  world  "subordinate"?  The 
Son  in   Eclchart  holds  quite  a  different  relation  to  the  Father  from  that 


PLATONISM  AND  MYSTICISM  153 

whether  Eckhart  really  falls  into  pantheism  or  not. 
The  answer  seems  to  me  to  depend  on  what  is  the 
obscurest  part  of  his  whole  system — the  relation  of 
the  phenonc^enal  world  to  the  world  of  ideas.  He 
offers  the  Christian  dogma  of  the  Incarnation  of  the 
Logos  as  a' kind  of  explanation  of  the  passage  of  the 
"  prototypes  "  into  "externality."  When  God  "  speaks  " 
His  ideas,  the  phenomenal  world  arises.  This  is  an 
incarnation.  But  the  process  by  which  the  soul  eman- 
cipates itself  from  the  phenomenal  and  returns  to  the 
intelligible  world,  is  also  called  a  "  begetting  of  the 
Son."  Thus  the  whole  process  is  a  circular  one — from 
God  and  back  to  God  again.  Time  and  space,  he 
says,  were  created  with  the  world.  Material  things 
are  outside  each  other,  spiritual  things  in  each  other. 
But  these  statements  do  not  make  it  clear  how  Eckhart 
accounts  for  the  imperfections  of  the  phenomenal  world, 
which  he  is  precluded  from  explaining,  as  the  Neo- 
platonists  did,  by  a  theory  of  emanation.  Nor  can 
we  solve  the  difficulty  by  importing  modern  theories 
of  evolution  into  his  system.      The  idea  of  the  world- 

which  the  Novj  holds  to  "  the  One  "  in  Plotinus,  as  the  following  sentence 
will  show  :  "God  is  for  ever  working  in  one  eternal  Now  ;  this  working 
of  His  is  giving  birth  to  His  Son;  He  bears  Him  at  every  moment.  From 
this  birth  proceed  all  things.  God  has  such  delight  therein  that  He  zises  up 
all  His  power  in  the  process.  He  bears  Himself  out  of  Himself  into  Him- 
self. He  bears  Himself  continually  in  the  Son  ;  in  Him  He  speaks  all 
things."  The  following  passage  from  Ruysbroek  is  an  attempt  to  define 
more  precisely  the  nature  of  the  Eckhartian  Ideas  :  Before  the  temporal 
creation  God  saw  the  creatures,  "  et  agnovit  distincte  in  seipso  in  alteri- 
tate  quadam — non  tamen  omnimoda  alteritate ;  quidquid  enim  in  Deo  est 
Deus  est."  Our  eternal  life  remains  "perpetuo  in  divina  essentia  sine 
discretione,"  but  continually  flows  out  "per  reternam  Verbi  genera- 
tionem."  Ruysbroek  also  says  clearly  that  creation  is  the  embodiment 
of  the  whole  mind  of  God:  "Whatever  lives  in  the  Father  hidden  in 
the  unity,  lives  in  the  Son  '  in  emanatione  manifesta.' " 


154  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

history  as  a  gradual  realisation  of  the  Divine  Person- 
ality was  foreign  to  Eckhart's  thought.  Stockl,  indeed, 
tries  to  father  upon  him  the  doctrine  that  the  human 
mind  is  a  necessary  organ  of  the  self-development  of 
God.  But  this  theory  cannot  be  found  in  Eckhart. 
The  "  necessity "  which  impels  God  to  "  beget  His 
Son  "  is  not  a  physical  but  a  moral  necessity.  "  The 
good  must  needs  impart  itself,"  he  says.^  The  fact 
is  that  his  view  of  the  world  is  much  nearer  to  acosm- 
ism  than  to  pantheism.  "  Nothing  hinders  us  so 
much  from  the  knowledge  of  God  as  time  and  place," 
he  says.  He  sees  in  phenomena  only  the  negation 
of  being,  and  it  is  not  clear  how  he  can  also  regard 
them  as  the  abode  of  the  immanent  God.^  It  would 
probably  be  true  to  say  that,  like  most  mediaeval 
thinkers,  he  did  not  feel  himself  obliged  to  give  a 
permanent  value  to  the  transitory,  and  that  the  world, 
except  as  the  temporary  abode  of  immortal  spirits, 
interested  him  but  little.  His  neglect  of  history,  includ- 
ing the  earthly  life  of  Christ,  is  not  at  all  the  result  of 
scepticism  about  the  miraculous.  It  is  simply  due  to 
the  feeling  that  the  Divine  process  in  the  "  everlasting 
Now  "  is  a  fact  of  immeasurably  greater  importance 
than  any  occurrence  in  the  external  world  can  be. 

^  It  is  true  that  Eckhart  was  censured  for  teaching  "  Deum  sine  ipso 
nihil  facere  posse  "  ;  but  the  notion  of  a  real  becoming  of  God  in  the  human 
mind,  and  the  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  evil  on  the  theory  of 
evolutionary  optimism,  are,  I  am  convinced,  alien  to  his  philosophy.  See, 
however,  on  the  other  side,  Carriere,  Die  philosophische  Weltanschauung 
der  Keforinationszeil,  pp.  152-157. 

-See  Lasson,  Meister  Eckhart,  p.  351.  Eckhart  protests  vigorously 
against  the  misrepresentation  that  he  made  the  phenomenal  world  the 
IVesen  of  God,  and  uses  strongly  acosmistic  language  in  self-defence.  But 
there  seems  to  be  a  real  inconsistency  in  this  side  of  his  philosophy. 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  155 

When  a  religious  writer  is  suspected  of  pantheism, 
we  naturally  turn  to  his  treatment  of  the  problem  of 
evil.  To  the  true  pantheist  all  is  equally  divine,  and 
everything  for  the  best  or  for  the  worst,  it  does  not 
much  matter  which.^  Eckhart  certainly  does  not  mean 
to  countenance  this  absurd  theory,  but  there  are  pas- 
sages in  his  writings  which  logically  imply  it ;  and  we 
look  in  vain  for  any  elucidation,  in  his  doctrine  of  sin, 
of  the  dark  places  in  his  doctrine  of  God.'^  In  fact,  he 
adds  very  little  to  the  Neoplatonic  doctrine  of  the 
nature  of  evil.  Like  Dionysius,  he  identifies  Being  with 
Good,  and  evil,  as  such,  with  not-being.  Moral  evil  is 
self-will :  it  is  the  attempt,  on  the  part  of  the  creature, 
to  be  a  particular  This  or  That  outside  of  God. 

But  what  is  most  distinctive  in  Eckhart's  ethics  is 
the  new  importance  which  is  given  to  the  doctrine  of 
immanence.  The  human  soul  is  a  microcosm,  which  in 
a  manner  contains  all  things  in  itself.  At  the  "  apex 
of  the  mind "  there  is  a  Divine  "  spark,"  which  is  so 
closely  akin  to  God  that  it  is  one  with   Him,  and  not 

*  I  mean  that  a  pantheist  may  with  equal  consistency  call  himself  an 
optimist  or  a  pessimist,  or  both  alternately. 

2  As  when  he  says,  "  In  God  all  things  are  one,  from  angel  to  spider." 
The  inquisitors  were  not  slow  to  lay  hold  of  this  error.  Among  the  twenty- 
six  articles  of  the  gravamen  against  Eckhart  we  find,  "Item,  in  omni 
opere,  etiam  malo,  manifestatur  et  relucet  cequaliter  gloria  Dei."  The 
word  aqualiter'xs  the  stamp  of  true  pantheism.  Eckhart,  however,  whether 
consistently  or  not,  frequently  asserts  the  transcendence  of  God.  "  God  is 
in  the  creatures,  but  above  them."  "He  is  above  all  nature,  and  is  not 
Himself  nature,"  etc.  In  dealing  with  sin,  he  is  confronted  with  the 
obvious  difficulty  that  if  it  is  the  nature  of  all  phenomenal  things  to  return 
to  God,  from  whom  they  proceeded,  the  process  which  he  calls  the  birth  of 
the  Son  ought  logically  to  occur  in  every  conscious  individual,  for  all  have 
a  like  phenomenal  existence.  He  attempts  to  solve  this  puzzle  by  the 
hypothesis  of  a  double  aspect  of  the  new  birth  (see  below).  But  I  fear 
there  is  some  justice  in  Professor  Pearson's  comment,  "Thus  his  pheno- 
menology is  shattered  upon  his  practical  theology." 


156  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

merely  united  to  Him.^  In  his  teaching  about  this 
"  ground  of  the  soul "  Eckhart  wavers.  His  earlier 
view  is  that  it  is  created,  and  only  the  medium  by  which 
God  transforms  us  to  Himself  But  his  later  doctrine 
is  that  it  is  uncreated,  the  immanence  of  the  Being  and 
Nature  of  God  H  imself.  "  Diess  Flinkelein,  das  ist  Gott," 
he  says  once.  This  view  was  adopted  by  Ruysbroek, 
Suso,  and  (with  modifications  by)  Tauler,  and  became 
one  of  their  chief  tenets.-  This  spark  is  the  organ  by 
which  our  personality  holds  communion  with  God  and 
knows  Him.  It  is  with  reference  to  it  that  Eckhart 
uses  the  phrase  which  has  so  often  been  quoted  to 
convict  him  of  blasphemous  self-deification — "  the  eye 

^  Other  scholastics  and  mystics  had  taught  that  there  is  a  residue  of  the 
GodUke  in  man.  The  idea  of  a  central  point  of  the  soul  appears  in 
Plotinus  and  Augustine,  and  the  word  scitjtilla  had  been  used  of  this 
faculty  before  Eckhart.  The  "synteresis"  of  Alexander  of  Hales,  Bona- 
ventura,  Albertus  Magnus,  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  was  substantially  the 
same.  But  there  is  this  difference,  that  while  the  earlier  writers  regard 
this  resemblance  to  God  as  only  a  residue,  Eckhart  regards  it  as  the  true 
Wesen  of  the  soul,  into  which  all  its  faculties  may  be  transformed. 

^  The  following  passage  from  Amiel  (p.  44  of  English  edition)  is  an 
admirable  commentary  on  the  mystical  doctrine  of  immanence: — "The 
centre  of  life  is  neither  in  thought  nor  in  feeling  nor  in  will,  nor  even  in 
consciousness,  so  far  as  it  thinks,  feels,  or  wishes.  For  moral  truth  may 
have  been  penetrated  and  possessed  in  all  these  ways,  and  escape  us  still. 
Deeper  even  than  consciousness,  there  is  our  being  itself,  our  very  sub- 
stance, our  nature.  Only  those  truths  which  have  entered  into  this  last 
region,  which  have  become  ourselves,  Ijccome  spontaneous  and  involuntary, 
instinctive  and  unconscious,  are  really  our  life — that  is  to  say,  something 
more  than  our  property.  So  long  as  we  are  able  to  distinguish  any  space 
whatever  between  the  truth  and  us,  we  remain  outside  it.  The  thought, 
the  feeling,  the  desire,  the  consciousness  of  life,  are  not  yet  quite  life.  But 
peace  and  repose  can  nowhere  be  found  except  in  life  and  in  eternal  life, 
and  the  eternal  life  is  the  Divine  life,  is  God.  To  become  Divine  is,  then, 
the  aim  of  life  :  then  only  can  truth  be  said  to  be  ours  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  loss,  because  it  is  no  longer  outside  of  us,  nor  even  in  us,  but  we 
are  it,  and  it  is  we  ;  we  ourselves  are  a  truth,  a  will,  a  work  of  God. 
Liberty  has  become  nature  ;  the  creature  is  one  with  its  Creator — one 
through  love," 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  157 

with  which  I  see  God  is  the  same  as  that  with  which 
He  sees  me."  ^  The  "  uncreated  spark  "  is  really  the 
same  as  the  grace  of  God,  which  raises  us  into  a  God- 
like state.  But  this  grace,  according  to  Eckhart  (at 
least  in  his  later  period),  is  God  Himself  acting  like  a 
human  faculty  in  the  soul,  and  transforming  it  so  that 
"  man  himself  becomes  grace." 

The  following  is  perhaps  the  most  instructive  pas- 
sage :  "  There  is  in  the  soul  something  which  is  above 
the  soul.  Divine,  simple,  a  pure  nothing ;  rather  name- 
less than  named,  rather  unknown  than  known.  Of  this 
I  am  accustomed  to  speak  in  my  discourses.  Some- 
times I  have  called  it  a  power,  sometimes  an  uncreated 
light,  and  sometimes  a  Divine  spark.  It  is  absolute 
and  free  from  all  names  and  all  forms,  just  as  God  is 
free  and  absolute  in  Himself.  It  is  higher  than  know- 
ledge, higher  than  love,  higher  than  grace.  For  in  all 
these  there  is  still  distinction.  In  this  power  God  doth 
blossom  and  flourish  with  all   His   Godhead,  and  the 

^  No  better  exposition  of  the  religious  aspect  of  Eckhart's  doctrine  of 
immanence  can  be  found  than  in  Principal  Caird's  Introduction  to  the 
Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  244,  245,  as  the  following  extract  will  show  : 
"There  is  therefore  a  sense  in  which  we  can  say  that  the  world  of  finite 
intelligence,  though  distinct  from  God,  is  still,  in  its  ideal  nature,  one  with 
Ilim.  That  which  God  creates,  and  by  which  lie  reveals  the  hidden 
treasures  of  His  wisdom  and  love,  is  still  not  foreign  to  His  own  infinite 
life,  but  one  with  it.  In  the  knowledge  of  the  minds  that  know  Him,  in 
the  self-surrender  of  the  hearts  that  love  Him,  it  is  no  paradox  to  affirm 
that  He  knows  and  loves  Himself.  As  He  is  the  origin  and  inspiration  of 
every  true  thought  and  pure  affection,  of  eveiy  experience  in  which  we 
forget  and  rise  above  ourselves,  so  is  He  also  of  all  these  the  end.  If  in 
one  point  of  view  religion  is  the  work  of  man,  in  another  it  is  the  work  of 
God.  Its  true  significance  is  not  apprehended  till  we  pass  beyond  its 
origin  in  time  and  in  the  experience  of  a  finite  spirit,  to  see  in  it  the  revela- 
tion of  the  mind  of  God  Himself.  In  the  language  of  Scripture,  '  It  is 
God  that  worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure  :  all  things 
are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled  us  to  Himself.'  " 


158  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Spirit  flourisheth  in  God.  In  this  power  the  Father 
bringeth  forth  His  only-begotten  Son,  as  essentially  as 
in  Himself;  and  in  this  light  ariseth  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  spark  rejecteth  all  creatures,  and  will  have  only 
God,  simply  as  He  is  in  Himself.  It  rests  satisfied 
neither  with  the  Father,  nor  with  the  Son,  nor  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  nor  with  the  three  Persons,  so  far  as  each 
existeth  in  its  particular  attribute.  It  is  satisfied  only 
with  the  superessential  essence.  It  is  determined  to 
enter  into  the  simple  Ground,  the  still  Waste,  the 
Unity  where  no  man  dwelleth.  Then  it  is  satisfied  in 
the  light ;  then  it  is  one :  it  is  one  in  itself,  as  this 
Ground  is  a  simple  stillness,  and  in  itself  immovable ; 
and  yet  by  this  immobility  are  all  things  moved." 

It  is  God  that  worketh  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do 
of  His  good  pleasure ;  but  our  own  nature  and  person- 
ality remain  intact.  It  is  plain  that  we  could  not  see 
God  unless  our  personality  remained  distinct  from  the 
personality  of  God.  Complete  fusion  is  as  destructive 
of  the  possibility  of  love  and  knowledge  as  complete 
separation.^ 

Eckhart  gives  to  "  the  highest  reason  "  -  the  primacy 

^  Eckhart  sees  this  (cf.  Preger,  vol.  i.  p.  421) :  "  Personality  in  Eckhart 
is  neither  the  faculties,  nor  the  form  {Bild),  nor  the  essence,  nor  the  nature 
of  the  Godhead,  but  it  is  rather  the  spirit  which  rises  out  of  the  essence, 
and  is  born  by  the  irradiation  of  the  form  in  the  essence,  which  mingles 
itself  with  our  nature  and  works  by  its  means."  The  obscurity  of  this  con- 
ception is  not  made  any  less  by  the  distinction  which  Eckhart  draws  between 
the  outer  and  inner  consciousness  in  the  personality.  The  outer  conscious- 
ness is  bound  up  with  the  earthly  life ;  to  it  all  images  must  come 
through  sense ;  but  in  this  way  it  can  have  no  image  of  itself.  But  the 
higher  consciousness  is  supra-temporal.  The  potential  ground  of  the  soul 
is  and  remains  sinless  ;  but  the  personality  is  also  united  to  the  bodily 
nature  ;  its  guilt  is  that  it  inclines  to  its  sinful  nature  instead  of  to  God. 

^  Eckhart  distinguishes  the  intelleciics  agens  {diji  wirkende  Vernunft) 
from  the  passive  (lidcndc)  intellect.     The  office  of  the  former  is  to  present 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  159 

among  our  faculties,  and  in  his  earlier  period  identifies 
it  with  "  the  spark."  He  asserts  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  reason  more  strongly  than  anyone  since  Erigena. 
His  language  on  this  subject  resembles  that  of  the 
Cambridge  Platonists.  "  Reasonable  knowledge  is 
eternal  life,"  he  says.  "  How  can  any  external  revela- 
tion help  me,"  he  asks,  "  unless  it  be  verified  by  inner 
experience  ?  The  last  appeal  must  always  be  to  the 
deepest  part  of  my  own  being,  and  that  is  my  reason." 
"  The  reason,"  he  says,  "presses  ever  upwards.  It  cannot 
rest  content  with  goodness  or  wisdom,  nor  even  with 
God  Himself;  it  must  penetrate  to  the  Ground  from 
whence  all  goodness  and  wisdom  spring." 

Thus  Eckhart  is  not  content  with  the  knowledge  of 
God  which  is  mediated  by  Christ,  but  aspires  to  pene- 
trate into  the  "  Divine  darkness  "  which  underlies  the 
manifestation  of  the  Trinity.  In  fact,  when  he  speaks 
of  the  imitation  of  Christ,  he  distinguishes  between 
"  the  way  of  the  manhood,"  which  has  to  be  followed 
by  all,  and  "  the  way  of  the  Godhead,"  which  is  for  the 
mystic  only.  In  this  overbold  aspiration  to  rise  "  from 
the  Three  to  the  One,"  he  falls  into  the  error  which  we 
have  already  noticed,  and  several  passages  in  his 
writings  advocate  the  quietistic  self-simplification  which 
belongs  to  this  scheme  of  perfection.  There  are  sen- 
tences in  which  he  exhorts  us  to  strip  off  all  that  comes 

perceptions  to  the  latter,  set  out  under  the  forms  of  time  and  space.  In  his 
Strassburg  period,  the  spark  or  Ganster,  the  inteUectus  agens,  diu  oberstc 
Vernicnft,  and  synteresis,  seem  to  be  identical  ;  but  later  he  says,  "The 
active  intellect  cannot  give  what  it  has  not  got.  It  cannot  see  two  ideas 
together,  but  only  one  after  another.  But  if  God  works  in  the  place  of 
the  active  intellect,  lie  begets  (in  the  mind)  many  ideas  in  one  point." 
Thus  the  "spark"  becomes  supra-rational  and  uncreated — the  Divine 
essence  itself. 


i6o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

to  us  from  the  senses,  and  to  throw  ourselves  upon  the 
heart  of  God,  there  to  rest  for  ever,  "  hidden  from  all 
creatures."  ^  But  there  are  many  other  passages  of  an 
opposite  tendency.  He  tells  us  that  "  the  way  of  the 
manhood,"  which,  of  course,  includes  imitation  of  the 
active  life  of  Christ,  must  be  trodden  first  by  all ;  he 
insists  that  in  the  state  of  union  the  faculties  of  the 
soul  will  act  in  a  new  and  higher  way,  so  that  the 
personality  is  restored,  not  destroyed  ;  and,  lastly,  he 
teaches  that  contemplation  is  only  the  means  to  a 
higher  activity,  and  that  this  is,  in  fact,  its  object ; 
"  what  a  man  has  taken  in  by  contemplation,  that  he 
pours  out  in  love."  There  is  no  contradiction  in  the 
desire  for  rest  combined  with  the  desire  for  active 
service ;  for  rest  can  only  be  defined  as  unimpeded 
activity ;  but  in  Eckhart  there  is,  I  think,  a  real  incon- 
sistency. The  traditions  of  his  philosophy  pointed 
towards  withdrawal  from  the  world  and  from  outward 
occupations — towards  the  monkish  ideal,  in  a  word  ; 
but  the  modern  spirit  was  already  astir  within  him. 
He  preached  in  German  to  the  general  public,  and  his 
favourite  themes  are  the  present  living  operation  of 
the  Spirit,  and  the  consecration  of  life  in  the  world. 
There  is,  he  shows,  no  contradiction  between  the  active 


^  The  following  sentence,  for  instance,  is  in  the  worst  manner  of  Dio- 
nysius:  "Thou  shall  love  God  as  He  is,  a  non-God,  a  non-Spirit,  a  non- 
Person,  a  non-Form  :  He  is  absolute  bare  Unity."  This  is  Eckhart's 
theory  of  the  Absolute  ("the  Godhead")  as  distinguished  from  God.  In 
these  moods  he  wishes,  like  the  Asiatic  mystics,  to  sink  in  the  bottomless 
sea  of  the  Infinite.  He  also  aspires  to  absolute  d.-KaQeia.{Abgeschiedenheit). 
"  Is  he  sick  ?  He  is  as  fain  to  be  sick  as  well.  If  a  friend  should  die — in 
the  name  of  God.  If  an  eye  should  be  knocked  out — in  the  name  of  God." 
The  soul  has  returned  to  its  pre-natal  condition,  having  rid  itself  of  all 
"  creatureliness." 


PLATONISM  AND   MYSTICISM  i6i 

and  the  contemplative  life ;  the  former  belongs  to  the 
faculties  of  the  soul,  the  latter  to  its  essence.  In  com- 
menting on  the  story  of  Martha  and  Mary,  those 
favourite  types  of  activity  and  contemplation,^  he  sur- 
prises us  by  putting  Martha  first.  "  Mary  hath  chosen 
the  good  part ;  that  is,"  he  says,  "  she  is  striving  to  be 
as  holy  as  her  sister.  Mary  is  still  at  school :  Martha 
has  learnt  her  lesson.  It  is  better  to  feed  the  hungry 
than  to  see  even  such  visions  as  St.  Paul  saw."  "  Besser 
ein  Lebemeister  als  tausend  Lesemeister."  He  dis- 
courages monkish  religiosity  and  external  badges  of 
saintliness — "  avoid  everything  peculiar,"  he  says,  "  in 
dress,  food,  and  language."  "  You  need  not  go  into  a 
desert  and  fast ;  a  crowd  is  often  more  lonely  than  a 
wilderness,  and  small  things  harder  to  do  than  great." 
"  What  is  the  good  of  the  dead  bones  of  saints  ? "  he 
asks,  in  the  spirit  of  a  sixteenth  century  reformer ;  "  the 
dead  can  neither  give  nor  take."  ^     This  double  aspect 

^  Many  passages  might  be  quoted.  The  ordinary  conckision  is  that  Mary 
chose  the  better  part,  because  activity  is  confined  to  this  Hfe,  while  con- 
templation lasts  for  ever.  Augustine  treats  the  story  of  Leah  and  Rachel 
in  the  same  way  {Contra  Faust.  Manich.  xxii.  52):  "  Lia  interpretatur 
Laborans,  Rachel  autem  Visum  principium,  sive  Verbum  ex  quo  videtur 
principium.  Actio  ergo  humanre  mortalisque  vitse  .  .  .  ipsa  est  Lia  prior 
uxor  Jacob  ;  ac  per  hoc  et  infirmis  oculis  fuisse  commemoratur.  Spes 
vero  oeternce  contemplationis  Dei,  habens  certam  et  delectabilem  intelli- 
gentiam  veritatis,  ipsa  est  Rachel,  unde  etiam  dicitur  bona  facie  et  pulcra 
specie,"  etc. 

^  Moreover,  he  is  never  tired  of  insisting  that  the  Will  is  everything. 
"  If  your  will  is  right,  you  cannot  go  wrong,"  he  says.  "  With  the  will  I 
can  do  everything."  "  Love  resides  in  the  will — the  more  will,  the  more 
love."  "There  is  nothing  evil  but  the  evil  will,  of  which  sin  is  the 
appearance."  "  The  value  of  human  life  depends  entirely  on  the  aim 
which  it  sets  before  itself."  This  over-insistence  on  purity  of  intention  as 
the  end,  as  well  as  the  beginning,  of  virtue,  is  no  doubt  connected  with 
Eckhart's  denial  of  reality  and  importance  to  the  world  of  time ;  he  tries 
to  show  that  it  does  not  logically  lead  to  Antinomianism.  His  doctrine 
that  good  works  have  no  value  in  themselves  differs  from  those  of  Abelard 
II 


1 62  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

of  Eckhart's  teaching  makes  him  particularly  interest- 
ing; he  seems  to  stand  on  the  dividing-line  between 
mediaeval  and  modern  Christianity. 

Like  other  mystics,  he  insists  that  love,  when  per- 
fect, is  independent  of  the  hope  of  reward,  and  he 
shows  great  freedom  in  handling  Purgatory,  Hell,  and 
Heaven.  They  are  states,  not  places;  separation 
from  God  is  the  misery  of  hell,  and  each  man  is  his 
own  judge.  "  We  would  spiritualise  everything,"  he 
says,  with  especial  reference  to  Holy  Scripture.^ 

In  comparing  the  Mysticism  of  Eckhart  with  that  of 
his  predecessors,  from  Dionysius  downwards,  and  of  the 
scholastics  down  to  Gerson,  we  find  an  obvious  change 
in  the  disappearance  of  the  long  ladders  of  ascent,  the 
graduated  scales  of  virtues,  faculties,  and  states  of 
mind,  which  fill  so  large  a  place  in  those  systems. 
These  lists  are  the  natural  product  of  the  imagination, 
when  it  plays  upon  the  theory  of  etnanation.  But 
with  Eckhart,  as  we  have  seen,  the  fundamental  truth 
is  the  immanence  of  God  Himself,  not  in  the  faculties, 
but  in  the  ground  of  the  soul.  The  "  spark  of  the 
soul  "  is  for  him  really  "  divinae  particula  aurae."  "  God 
begets  His  Son  in  me,"  he  is  fond  of  saying :  and  there 

and  Bernard,  which  have  a  superficial  resemblance  to  it.  Eckhart  really 
regards  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  good  works  much  as  St,  Paul  treated  the 
Pharisaic  legalism  ;  but  he  is  as  unconscious  of  the  widening  gulf  which  had 
already  opened  between  Teutonic  and  Latin  Christianity,  as  of  the  discredit  . 
which  his  own  writings  were  to  help  to  bring  upon  the  monkish  view  of 
life. 

^  As  an  example  of  his  free  handling  of  the  Old  Testament,  I  may  quote, 
"  Do  not  suppose  that  when  God  made  heaven  and  earth  and  all  things, 
He  made  one  thing  to-day  and  another  to-morrow.  Moses  says  so,  of 
course,  but  he  knew  better  ;  he  only  wrote  that  for  the  sake  of  the  populace, 
who  could  not  have  understood  otherwise.  God  merely  willed,  and  the 
world  was"  ~ 


PLATONISM   AND   MYSTICISM  163 

is  no  doubt  that,  relying  on  a  verse  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  St.  John,  he  regards  this  "  begetting "  as 
analogous  to  the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son.^  This 
birth  of  the  Son  in  the  soul  has  a  double  aspect — the 
"  eternal  birth,"  which  is  unconscious  and  inalienable,^ 
but  which  does  not  confer  blessedness,  being -common 
to  good  and  bad  alike ;  and  the  assimilation  of  the 
faculties  of  the  soul  by  the  pervading  presence  of 
Christ,  or  in  other  words  by  grace,  "  quae  lux  quaedam 
deiformis  est,"  as  Ruysbroek  says.  The  deification  of 
our  nature  is  therefore  a  thing  to  be  striven  for,  and 
not  given  complete  to  start  with  ;  but  it  is  important 
to  observe  that  Eckhart  places  no  intermediaries 
between  man  and  God.  "  The  Word  is  very  nigh 
thee,"  nearer  than  any  object  of  sense,  and  any  human 
institutions  ;  sink  into  thyself,  and  thou  wilt  find  Him. 
The  heavenly  and  earthly  hierarchies  of  Dionysius, 
with  the  reverence  for  the  priesthood  which  was  built 
upon  them,  have  no  significance  for  Eckhart.  In  this 
as  in  other  ways,  he  is  a  precursor  of  the  Reformation. 
With  Eckhart  I  end  this  Lecture  on  the  speculative 
Mysticism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  His  successors,  Ruys- 
broek, Suso,  and  Tauler,  much  as  they  resemble  him 
in  their  general  teaching,  differ  from  him  in  this,  that 
with   none  of   them    is    the   intellectual,  philosophical 

^  E.g.  "  Da  der  vatter  seynen  sun  in  mir  gebirt,  da  byn  ich  der  selb  sun 
und  nitt  eyn  ander." 

^  So  Hermann  of  Fritslar  says  that  the  soul  has  two  faces,  the  one  turned 
towards  this  world,  the  other  immediately  to  God.  In  the  latter  God 
flows  and  shines  eternally,  whether  man  is  conscious  of  it  or  not.  It  is 
therefore  according  to  man's  nature  as  possessed  of  this  Divine  ground,  to 
seek  God,  his  original ;  and  even  in  hell  the  suffering  there  has  its  source 
in  the  hopeless  contradiction  of  this  indestructible  tendency.  See  Vaughan, 
vol.  i.  p.  256  ;  and  the  same  teaching  in  Tauler,  p.  185. 


1 64  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

side  of  primary  importance.  They  added  nothing  of 
value  to  the  speculative  system  of  Eckhart ;  their 
Mysticism  was  primarily  a  religion  of  the  heart  or  a 
rule  of  life.  It  is  this  side  of  Mysticism  to  which  I 
shall  next  invite  your  attention.  It  should  bring  us 
near  to  the  centre  of  our  subject :  for  a  speculative 
religious  system   is  best  known  by  its  fruits. 


LECTURE   V 


165 


"  0  dpbvos  r^s  6€iuT7)Tos  6  vous  iariv  tj/hQv." 

Macarius, 

"  Thou  comest  not,  thou  goest  not ; 
Thou  wert  not,  wilt  not  be ; 
Eternity  is  but  a  thought 

By  which  we  think  of  Thee." 

Faber. 

"  Werd  als  ein  Kind,  werd  taub  und  blind, 
Dein  eignes  Icht  muss  warden  nicht : 

All  Icht,  all  Nicht  treib  feme  nur  ; 
Lass  Statt,  lass  Zeit,  auch  Bild  lass  weit, 
Geh  ohne  Weg  den  schmalen  Steg, 

So  kommst  du  auf  der  Wiiste  Spur. 
O  Seele  mein,  aus  Gott  geh  ein, 
Sink  als  ein  Icht  in  Gottes  Nicht, 

Sink  in  die  ungegrtindte  Fluth. 
Flich  ich  von  Dir,  du  kommst  zu  mir, 
Verlass  ich  mich,  so  find  ich  Dich, 

O  iiberwesentliches  Gut ! " 

Medictval  Geniian  Hytnn. 

"  Quid  caelo  dabimus?  quantum  est  quo  veneat  omne? 
Impendendus  homo  est,  Deus  esse  ut  possit  in  ipso." 

Man  I  LI  us. 


166 


LECTURE    V 
Practical  and  Devotional  Mysticism 

"  We  all,  with  unveiled  face  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are 
transformed  into  the  same  image,  from  glory  to  glory." — 2  CoR.  iii.  1 8. 

The  school  of  Eckhart  ^  in  the  fourteenth  century  pro- 
duced the  brightest  cluster  of  names  in  the  history  of 
Mysticism.  In  Ruysbroek,  Suso,  Tauler,  and  the 
author  of  the  Theologia  Germanica  we  see  introspective 
Mysticism  at  its  best.  This  must  not  be  understood 
to  mean  that  they  improved  upon  the  philosophical 
system  of  Eckhart,  or  that  they  are  entirely  free  from 
the  dangerous  tendencies  which  have  been  found  in  his 
works.  On  the  speculative  side  they  added  nothing  of 
value,  and  none  of  them  rivals  Eckhart  in  clearness  of 
intellect.  But  we  find  in  them  an  unfaltering  con- 
viction that  our  communion  with  God  must  be  a  fact 
of  experience,  and  not  only  a  philosophical  theory. 
With  the  most  intense  earnestness  they  set  themselves 
to  live  through  the  mysteries  of  the  spiritual  life,  as  the 
only  way  to  understand  and  prove  them.     Suso  and 

^  The  indebtedness  of  the  fourteenth  century  mystics  to  Eckhart  is  now 
generally  recognised,  at  any  rate  in  Germany ;  but  before  Pfeiffer's  work 
his  name  had  been  allowed  to  fall  into  most  undeserved  obscurity.  This 
was  not  the  fault  of  his  scholars,  who,  in  spite  of  the  Papal  condemnation 
of  his  writings,  speak  of  Eckhart  with  the  utmost  reverence,  as  the 
"great,"  "sublime,"  or  "holy"  master. 

167 


i68  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Tauler  both  passed  through  deep  waters ;  the  history 
of  their  inner  Hves  is  a  record  of  heroic  struggle  and 
suffering.  The  personality  of  the  men  is  part  of  their 
message,  a  statement  which  could  hardly  be  made  of 
Dionysius  or  Erigena,  perhaps  not  of  Eckhart  himself. 

John  of  Ruysbroek,  "  doctor  ecstaticus "  as  the 
Church  allowed  him  to  be  called,  was  born  in  1293, 
and  died  in  1381.  He  was  prior  of  Vauvert,  near 
Brussels,  and  afterwards  retired  to  the  convent  of 
Griinthal,  in  the  forest  of  Soignies,  where  he  wrote 
most  of  his  mystical  treatises,  under  the  direct 
guidance,  as  he  believed,  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  was 
the  object  of  great  veneration  in  the  later  part  of  his 
life.  Ruysbroek  was  not  a  learned  man,  or  a  clear 
thinker.^  He  knew  Dionysius,  St.  Augustine,  and 
Eckhart,  and  was  no  doubt  acquainted  with  some  of 
the  other  mystical  writers ;  but  he  does  not  write  like 
a  scholar  or  a  man  of  letters.  He  resembles  Suso  in 
being  more  emotional  and  less  speculative  than  most 
of  the  German  school. 

Ruysbroek  reverts  to  the  mystical  tradition,  par- 
tially broken  by  Eckhart,  of  arranging  almost  all  his 
topics  in  three  or  seven  divisions,  often  forming  a 
progressive  scale.  For  instance,  in  the  treatise  "  On 
the  Seven  Grades  of  Love,"  we  have  the  following  series, 
which  he  calls  the  "Ladder  of  Love":  (i)  goodwill; 
(2)  voluntary  poverty;  (3)  chastity;  (4)  humility; 
(5)  desire  for  the  glory  of  God  ;  (6)  Divine  contempla- 
tion, which    has   three  properties — intuition,  purity   of 

*  "  Vir  ut  ferunt  devotus  sed  parum  litteratus,"  says  the  Abbe  Tritheme 
(a/.  Gessner,  Biblioth.).  "  Rusbrochius  cum  idiota  esset"  {Dyon.  Carth. 
Serm.  i. ).     Compare  Rousselot,  Les  Mystiques  Espapiols,  p.  493. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        169 

spirit,  and  nudity  of  mind  ;  (7)  the  ineffable,  unname- 
able  transcendence  of  all  knowledge  and  thought. 
This  arbitrary  schematism  is  the  weakest  part  of 
Ruysbroek's  writings,  which  contain  many  deep 
thoughts.  His  chief  work,  Ordo  spii'itualiunt  nup- 
tiarum,  is  one  of  the  most  complete  charts  of  the 
mystic's  progress  which  exist.  The  three  stages 
are  here  the  active  life  {vita  actuosd)^  the  internal, 
elevated,  or  affective  life,  to  which  all  are  not  called, 
and  the  contemplative  life,  to  which  only  a  few  can 
attain.  The  three  parts  of  the  soul,  sensitive,  rational, 
and  spiritual,  correspond  to  these  three  stages.  The 
motto  of  the  active  life  is  the  text, "  Ecce  sponsus  venit ; 
exite  obviam  ei."  The  Bridegroom  "  comes "  three 
times :  He  came  in  the  flesh ;  He  comes  into  us  by 
grace ;  and  He  will  come  to  judgment.  We  must  "  go 
out  to  meet  Him,"  by  the  three  virtues  of  humility, 
love,  and  justice :  these  are  the  three  virtues  which 
support  the  fabric  of  the  active  life.  The  ground  of 
all  the  virtues  is  humility ;  thence  proceed,  in  order, 
obedience,  renunciation  of  our  own  will,  patience, 
gentleness,  piety,  sympathy,  bountifulness,  strength 
and  impulse  for  all  virtues,  soberness  and  temperance, 
chastity.  "  This  is  the  active  life,  which  is  necessary 
for  us  all,  if  we  wish  to  follow  Christ,  and  to  reign 
with   Him   in  His  everlasting  kingdom." 

Above  the  active  rises  the  inner  life.  This  has  three 
parts.  Our  intellect  must  be  enlightened  with  super- 
natural clearness ;  we  must  behold  the  inner  coming  of 
the  Bridegroom,  that  is,  the  eternal  truth  ;  we  must  "  go 
out "  from  the  exterior  to  the  inner  life ;  we  must  go 
to  meet  the  Bridegroom,  to  enjoy  union  with  His  Divinity. 


I70  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Finally,  the  spirit  rises  from  the  inner  to  the  con- 
templative life.  "  When  we  rise  above  ourselves,  and 
in  our  ascent  to  God  are  made  so  simple  that  the  love 
which  embraces  us  is  occupied  only  with  itself,  above 
the  practice  of  all  the  virtues,  then  we  are  transformed 
and  die  in  God  to  ourselves  and  to  all  separate  in- 
dividuality." God  unites  us  with  Himself  in  eternal 
love,  which  is  Himself.  "  In  this  embrace  and  essential 
unity  with  God  all  devout  and  inward  spirits  are  one 
with  God  by  living  immersion  and  melting  away  into 
Him  ;  they  are  by  grace  one  and  the  same  thing  with 
Him,  because  the  same  essence  is  in  both."  "  For 
what  we  are,  that  we  intently  contemplate ;  and  what 
we  contemplate,  that  we  are ;  for  our  mind,  our  life, 
and  our  essence  are  simply  lifted  up  and  united  to  the 
very  truth,  which  is  God.  Wherefore  in  this  simple 
and  intent  contemplation  we  are  one  life  and  one 
spirit  with  God.  And  this  I  call  the  contemplative 
life.  In  this  highest  stage  the  soul  is  united  to  God 
without  means ;  it  sinks  into  the  vast  darkness  of 
the  Godhead."  In  this  abyss,  he  says,  following  his 
authorities,  "  the  Persons  of  the  Trinity  transcend 
themselves  "  ;  "  thei'e  is  only  the  eternal  essence,  which 
is  the  substance  of  the  Divine  Persons,  where  we  are 
all  one  and  uncreated,  according  to  our  prototypes." 
Here,  "  so  far  as  distinction  of  persons  goes,  there  is  no 
more  God  nor  creature  " ;  "  we  have  lost  ourselves  and 
been  melted  away  into  the  unknown  darkness."  And 
yet  we  remain  eternally  distinct  from  God.  The 
creature  remains  a  creature,  and  loses  not  its  creature- 
Hness.  We  must  be  conscious  of  ourselves  in  God, 
and  conscious  of  ourselves  in  ourselves.      For  eternal 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        171 

life  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  there  can  be 
no  knowledge  without  self-consciousness.  If  we  could 
be  blessed  without  knowing  it,  a  stone,  which  has 
no  consciousness,  might  be  blessed. 

Ruysbroek,  it  is  plain,  had  no  qualms  in  using  the 
old  mystical  language  without  qualification.  This  is 
the  more  remarkable,  because  he  was  fully  aware  of  the 
disastrous  consequences  which  follow  from  the  method 
of  negation  and  self-deification.  For  Ruysbroek  was 
an  earnest  reformer  of  abuses.  He  spares  no  one — 
popes,  bishops,  monks,  and  the  laity  are  lashed  in 
vigorous  language  for  their  secularity,  covetousness, 
and  other  faults ;  but  perhaps  his  sharpest  castigation 
is  reserved  for  the  false  mystics.  There  are  some,  he 
says,  who  mistake  mere  laziness  for  holy  abstraction  ; 
others  give  the  rein  to  "  spiritual  self-indulgence " ; 
others  neglect  all  religious  exercises ;  others  fall  into 
antinomianism,  and  "  think  that  nothing  is  forbidden 
to  them  " — "  they  will  gratify  any  appetite  which  in- 
terrupts their  contemplation  "  :  these  are  "  by  far  the 
worst  of  all."  "  There  is  another  error,"  he  proceeds, 
"  of  those  who  like  to  call  themselves  '  theopaths.' 
They  take  every  impulse  to  be  Divine,  and  repudiate 
all  responsibility.  Most  of  them  live  in  inert  sloth." 
As  a  corrective  to  these  errors,  he  very  rightly  says, 
"  Christ  must  be  the  rule  and  pattern  of  all  our  lives  "  ; 
but  he  does  not  see  that  there  is  a  deep  inconsistency 
between  the  imitation  of  Christ  as  the  living  way  to 
the  Father,  and  the  "  negative  road  "  which  leads  to 
vacancy.^ 

^  Maeterlinck,  Ruysbroek's  latest  interpreter,  is  far  too  complimentary 
to  the  intellectual  endowments  of  his   fellow-countryman.       "  Ce  moine 


172  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

Henry  Suso,  whose  autobiography  is  a  document  of 
unique  importance  for  the  psychology  of  Mysticism, 
was  born  in  1295.^  Intellectually  he  is  a  disciple 
of  Eckhart,  whom  he  understands  better  than  Ruys- 
broek ;  but  his  life  and  character  are  more  like  those 
of  the  Spanish  mystics,  especially  St.  Juan  of  the 
Cross.  The  text  which  is  most  often  in  his  mouth 
is,  "  Where  I  am,  there  shall  also  My  servant  be  "  ; 
which  he  interprets  to  mean  that  only  those  who 
have  embraced  to  the  full  the  fellowship  of  Christ's 
sufferings,  can  hope  to  be  united  to  Him  in  glory. 
"  No  cross,  no  crown,"  is  the  law  of  life  which  Suso 
accepts  in  all  the  severity  of  its  literal  meaning. 
The  story  of  the  terrible  penances  which  he  inflicted 
on  himself  for  part  of  his  life  is  painful  and  almost 
repulsive  to  read ;  but  they  have  nothing  in  common 
with  the  ostentatious  self-torture  of  the  fakir. 
Suso's  deeply  affectionate  and  poetical  temperament, 
with  its  strong  human  loves  and  sympathies,  made 
the  life  of  the  cloister  very  difficult  for  him.  He 
accepted  it  as  the  highest  life,  and  strove  to  conform 
himself  to  its  ideals ;  and  when,  after  sixteen  years 
of  cruel  austerities,  he  felt  that  his  "  refractory  body  " 
was  finally  tamed,  he  discontinued  his  mortifications, 

possedait  un  des  plus  sages,  des  plus  exacts,  et  des  plus  subtils  organes 
philosophiques  qui  aient  jamais  existe."  He  thinks  it  marvellous  that 
"il  sait,  a  son  insu,  le  platonisme  de  la  Grece,  le  soufisme  de  la  Perse,  le 
brahmanisme  de  I'lnde  et  le  bouddhisme  de  Thibet,"  etc.  In  reality, 
Ruysbroek  gets  all  his  philosophy  from  Eckhart,  and  his  manner  of 
expounding  it  shows  no  abnormal  acuteness.  But  Maeterlinck's  essay  in 
Le  Tresor  des  Humbles  contains  some  good  things — e.g.  "  Les  verites 
mystiques  ne  peuvent  ni  vieillir  ni  mourir.  .  .  .  Une  oeuvre  ne  vieillit 
qu'en  proportion  de  sonantimysticisme." 

*  So  Preger,  probably  rightly.     Noack  places  his  birth  five  years  later. 
The  chronology  of  the  Life  is  very  loose. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        173 

and  entered  upon  a  career  of  active  usefulness.  In 
this  he  had  still  heavier  crosses  to  carry,  for  he 
was  persecuted  and  falsely  accused,  while  the  spiritual 
consolations  which  had  cheered  him  in  his  early 
struggles  were  often  withdrawn.  In  his  old  age, 
shortly  before  his  death  in  1365,  he  published  the 
history  of  his  life,  which  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  charming  of  all  autobiographies.  Suso's  literary 
gift  is  very  remarkable.  Unlike  most  ecstatic  mystics, 
who  declare  on  each  occasion  that  "  tongue  cannot 
utter"  their  experiences,  Suso's  store  of  glowing  and 
vivid  language  never  fails.  The  hunger  and  thirst  of 
the  soul  for  God,  and  the  answering  love  of  Christ 
manifested  in  the  inner  man,  have  never  found  a  more 
pure  and  beautiful  expression.  In  the  hope  of  in- 
ducing more  readers  to  become  acquainted  with  this 
gem  of  mediaeval  literature,  I  will  give  a  few  extracts 
from  its  pages. 

"  The  servitor  of  the  eternal  Wisdom,"  as  he  calls 
himself  throughout  the  book,  made  the  first  beginning 
of  his  perfect  conversion  to  God  in  his  eighteenth 
year.  Before  that,  he  had  lived  as  others  live,  content 
to  avoid  deadly  sin ;  but  all  the  time  he  had  felt  a 
gnawing  reproach  within  him.  Then  came  the  tempta- 
tion to  be  content  with  gradual  progress,  and  to  "  treat 
himself  well."  But  "  the  eternal  Wisdom "  said  to 
him,  "  He  who  seeks  with  tender  treatment  to  conquer 
a  refractory  body,  wants  common  sense.  If  thou  art 
minded  to  forsake  all,  do  so  to  good  purpose."  The 
stern  command  was  obeyed.^      Very  soon — it   is  the 

^  The  extreme  asceticism  which  was  practised  by  Suso,  and  (though  to 
a  less  degree)  by  Tauler,  is  not  enjoined  by  them  as  a  necessar)'  part  of  a 


174  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

usual  experience  of  ascetic  mystics — he  was  encour- 
aged by  rapturous  visions.  One  such,  which  came  to 
him  on  St.  Agnes'  Day,  he  thus  describes : — "  It  was 
without  form  or  mode,  but  contained  within  itself  the 
most  entrancing  delight.  His  heart  was  athirst  and 
yet  satisfied.  It  was  a  breaking  forth  of  the  sweetness 
of  eternal  life,  felt  as  present  in  the  stillness  of  con- 
templation. Whether  he  was  in  the  body  or  out  of 
the  body,  he  knew  not."  It  lasted  about  an  hour  and 
a  half;  but  gleams  of  its  light  continued  to  visit  him 
at  intervals  for  some  time  after. 

Suso's  loving  nature,  like  Augustine's,  needed  an 
object  of  affection.  His  imagination  concentrated 
itself  upon  the  eternal  Wisdom,  personified  in  the 
Book  of  Proverbs  in  female  form  as  a  loving  mistress, 
and  the  thought  came  often  to  him,  "  Truly  thou 
shouldest  make  trial  of  thy  fortune,  whether  this  high 
mistress,  of  whom  thou  hast  heard  so  much,  will 
become  thy  love ;  for  in  truth  thy  wild  young  heart 
will  not  remain  without  a  love."  Then  in  a  vision  he 
saw  her,  radiant  in  form,  rich  in  wisdom,  and  overflow- 
ing with  love ;  it  is  she  who  touches  the  summit  of  the 
heavens,  and  the  depths  of  the  abyss,  who  spreads 
herself  from  end  to  end,  mightily  and  sweetly  dispos- 
ing all  things.  And  she  drew  nigh  to  him  lovingly, 
and  said  to  him  sweetly,  "  My  son,  give  me  thy 
heart." 

At  this  season  there  came  into  his  soul  a  flame  of 
intense  fire,  which  made  his  heart  burn  with  Divine 
love.     And    as   a   "  love   token,"   he    cut   deep   in    his 

holy  life.  "We  are  to  kill  our  passions,  not  our  flesh  and  blood,"  as 
Tauler  says. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        175 

breast  the  name  of  Jesus,  so  that  the  marks  of  the 
letters  remained  all  his  life,  "  about  the  length  of  a 
finger-joint." 

Another  time  he  saw  a  vision  of  angels,  and  be- 
sought one  of  them  to  show  him  the  manner  of  God's 
secret  dwelling  in  the  soul.  An  angel  answered, 
"  Cast  then  a  joyous  glance  into  thyself,  and  see  how 
God  plays  His  play  of  love  with  thy  loving  soul."  He 
looked  immediately,  and  saw  that  his  body  over  his 
heart  was  as  clear  as  crystal,  and  that  in  the  centre 
was  sitting  tranquilly,  in  lovely  form,  the  eternal 
Wisdom,  beside  whom  sat,  full  of  heavenly  longing, 
the  servitor's  own  soul,  which  leaning  lovingly  towards 
God's  side,  and  encircled  by  His  arms,  lay  pressed 
close  to  His  heart. 

In  another  vision  he  saw  "  the  blessed  master  Eck- 
hart,"  who  had  lately  died  in  disfavour  with  the  rulers 
of  the  Church.  "  He  signified  to  the  servitor  that  he 
was  in  exceeding  glory,  and  that  his  soul  was  quite 
transformed,  and  made  Godlike  in  God."  In  answer 
to  questions,  "  the  blessed  Master "  told  him  that 
"  words  cannot  tell  the  manner  in  which  those  persons 
dwell  in  God  who  have  really  detached  themselves 
from  the  world,  and  that  the  way  to  attain  this  detach- 
ment is  to  die  to  self,  and  to  maintain  unruffled 
patience  with  all  men." 

Very  touching  is  the  vision  of  the  Holy  Child 
which  came  to  him  in  church  on  Candlemas  Day. 
Kneeling  down  in  front  of  the  Virgin,  who  appeared 
to  him,  "  he  prayed  her  to  show  him  the  Child,  and  to 
suffer  him  also  to  kiss  it.  When  she  kindly  offered  it  to 
him,  he  spread  out  his  arms  and  received  the  beloved 


176  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

One.  He  contemplated  its  beautiful  little  eyes,  he 
kissed  its  tender  little  mouth,  and  he  gazed  again  and 
again  at  all  the  infant  members  of  the  heavenly  trea- 
sure. Then,  lifting  up  his  eyes,  he  uttered  a  cry  of 
amazement  that  He  who  bears  up  the  heavens  is 
so  great,  and  yet  so  small,  so  beautiful  in  heaven 
and  so  childlike  on  earth.  And  as  the  Divine  Infant 
moved  him,  so  did  he  act  toward  it,  now  singing 
now  weeping,  till  at  last  he  gave  it  back  to  its 
mother." 

When  at  last  he  was  warned  by  an  angel,  he  says, 
to  discontinue  his  austerities,  "  he  spent  several  weeks 
very  pleasantly,"  often  weeping  for  joy  at  the  thought 
of  the  grievous  sufferings  which  he  had  undergone. 
But  his  repose  was  soon  disturbed.  One  day,  as  he 
sat  meditating  on  "  life  as  a  warfare,"  he  saw  a  vision 
of  a  comely  youth,  who  vested  him  in  the  attire  of  a 
knight,^  saying  to  him,  "  Hearken,  sir  knight !  Hitherto 
thou  hast  been  a  squire ;  now  God  wills  thee  to  be 
a  knight.  And  thou  shalt  have  fighting  enough ! " 
Suso  cried,  "  Alas,  my  God  !  what  art  Thou  about  to 
do  unto  me?  I  thought  that  I  had  had  enough  by 
this  time.  Show  me  how  much  suffering  I  have  before 
me."  The  Lord  said,  "  It  is  better  for  thee  not  to 
know.  Nevertheless  I  will  tell  thee  of  three  things. 
Hitherto  thou  hast  stricken  thyself.     Now  I  will  strike 


^  It  would  be  very  interesting  to  trace  the  influence  of  the  chivalric  idea 
on  religious  Mysticism.  Chivalry,  the  worship  of  idealised  womanhood, 
is  itself  a  mystical  cult,  and  its  relation  to  religious  Mysticism  appears 
throughout  the  "Divine  Comedy"  and  "Vita  Nuova "  (see  especially 
the  incomparable  paragraph  which  concludes  this  latter),  and  in  the  sonnet 
of  M.  Angelo  translated  by  Wordsworth,  "  No  mortal  object  did  ttie^e  ^yes 
behold,"  etc. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        177 

thee,  and  thou  shalt  suffer  pubHcIy  the  loss  of  thy 
good  name.  Secondly,  where  thou  shalt  look  for  love 
and  faithfulness,  there  shalt  thou  find  treachery  and 
suffering.  Thirdly,  hitherto  thou  hast  floated  in  Divine 
sweetness,  like  a  fish  in  the  sea ;  this  will  I  now  with- 
draw from  thee,  and  thou  shalt  starve  and  wither. 
Thou  shalt  be  forsaken  both  by  God  and  the  world, 
and  whatever  thou  shalt  take  in  hand  to  comfort  thee 
shall  come  to  nought."  The  servitor  threw  himself  on 
the  ground,  with  arms  outstretched  to  form  a  cross, 
and  prayed  in  agony  that  this  great  misery  might  not 
fall  upon  him.  Then  a  voice  said  to  him,  "Be  of 
good  cheer,  I  will  be  with  thee  and  aid  thee  to 
overcome." 

The  next  chapters  show  how  this  vision  or  pre- 
sentiment was  verified.  The  journeys  which  he  now 
took  exposed  him  to  frequent  dangers,  both  from 
robbers  and  from  lawless  men  who  hated  the  monks. 
One  adventure  with  a  murderer  is  told  with  delightful 
simplicity  and  vividness.  Suso  remains  throughout 
his  life  thoroughly  human,  and,  hard  as  his  lot  had 
been,  he  is  in  an  agony  of  fear  at  the  prospect  of  a 
violent  death.  The  story  of  the  outlaw  confessing  to 
the  trembling  monk  how,  besides  other  crimes,  he  had 
once  pushed  into  the  Rhine  a  priest  who  had  just 
heard  his  confession,  and  how  the  wife  of  the  assassin 
comforted  Suso  when  he  was  about  to  drop  down  from 
sheer  fright,  forms  a  quaint  interlude  in  the  saint's 
memoirs.  But  a  more  grievous  trial  awaited  him. 
Among  other  pastoral  work,  he  laboured  much  to 
reclaim  fallen  women ;  and  a  pretended  penitent,  whose 
insincerity  he  had  detected,  revenged  herself  by  a 
12 


178  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

slander  which  almost  ruined  him.^  Happily,  the  chiefs 
of  his  order,  whose  verdict  he  had  greatly  dreaded, 
completely  exonerated  him,  after  a  full  investigation, 
and  his  last  years  seem  to  have  been  peaceful  and 
happy.  The  closing  chapters  of  the  Life  are  taken 
up  by  some  very  interesting  conversations  with  his 
spiritual  "  daughter,"  Elizabeth  Staglin,  who  wished  to 
understand  the  obscurer  doctrines  of  Mysticism.  She 
asks  him  about  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  he 
expounds  on  the  general  lines  of  Eckhart's  theology. 
She,  however,  remembers  some  of  the  bolder  phrases 
in  Eckhart,  and  says,  "  But  there  are  some  who  say 
that,  in  order  to  attain  to  perfect  union,  we  must  divest 
ourselves  of  God,  and  turn  only  to  the  inwardly- 
shining  light."  "  That  is  false,"  replies  Suso,  "  if  the 
words  are  taken  in  their  ordinary  sense.  But  the 
common  belief  about  God,  that  He  is  a  great  Task- 
master, whose  function  is  to  reward  and  punish,  is  cast 
out  by  perfect  love ;  and  in  this  sense  the  spiritual 
man  does  divest  himself  of  God,  as  conceived  of  by  the 
vulgar.  Again,  in  the  highest  state  of  union,  the  soul 
takes  no  note  of  the  Persons  separately ;  for  it  is  not  the 
Divine  Persons  taken  singly  that  confer  bliss,  but  the 
Three  in  One."  Suso  here  gives  a  really  valuable  turn 
to  one  of  Eckhart's  rashest  theses.  "  Where  is  heaven  ?  " 
asks  his  pupil  next.      "  The  intellectual  where"  is  the 

^  Nothing  in  the  book  is  more  touching  than  the  scene  when  the  baby, 
deserted  by  its  mother,  Suso's  false  accuser,  is  brought  to  him.  Suso  takes 
the  child  in  his  arms,  and  weeps  over  it  with  affectionate  words,  while  the 
infant  smiles  up  at  him.  In  spite  of  the  calumny  which  he  knew  was 
being  spread  wherever  it  would  most  injure  him,  he  insists  on  paying  for 
the  child's  maintenance,  rather  than  leave  it  to  die  from  neglect.  The 
Italian  mystic  Scupoli,  the  author  of  a  beautiful  devotional  work  called 
the  Spiritual  Combat,  was  calumniated  in  a  similar  manner. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        179 

reply,  "  is  the  essentially-existing  unnameable  nothing- 
ness. So  we  must  call  it,  because  we  can  discover  no 
mode  of  being,  under  which  to  conceive  of  it.  But 
though  it  seems  to  us  to  be  no-thing,  it  deserves  to  be 
called  something  rather  than  nothing."  Suso,  we  see, 
follows  Dionysius,  but  with  this  proviso.  The  maiden 
now  asks  him  to  give  her  a  figure  or  image  of  the  self- 
evolution  of  the  Trinity,  and  he  gives  her  the  figure  of 
concentric  circles,  such  as  appear  when  we  throw  a 
stone  into  a  pond.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  this  is  as  unlike 
the  formless  truth  as  a  black  Moor  is  unlike  the 
beautiful  sun."  Soon  after,  the  holy  maiden  died,  and 
Suso  saw  her  in  a  vision,  radiant  and  full  of  heavenly 
joy,  showing  him  how,  guided  by  his  counsels,  she  had 
found  everlasting  bliss.  When  he  came  to  himself,  he 
said,  "  Ah,  God !  blessed  is  the  man  who  strives  after 
Thee  alone  !  He  may  well  be  content  to  suffer,  whose 
pains  Thou  rewardest  thus.  God  help  us  to  rejoice  in 
this  maiden,  and  in  all  His  dear  friends,  and  to  enjoy 
His  Divine  countenance  eternally  !  "  So  ends  Suso's 
autobiography.  His  other  chief  work,  a  Dialogue 
between  the  eternal  Wisdom  and  the  Servitor,  is  a 
prose  poem  of  great  beauty,  the  tenor  of  which  may 
be  inferred  from  the  above  extracts  from  the  Life. 
Suso  believed  that  the  Divine  Wisdom  had  indeed 
spoken  through  his  pen  ;  and  few,  I  think,  will  accuse 
him  of  arrogance  for  the  words  which  conclude  the 
Dialogue.  "  Whosoever  will  read  these  writings  of 
mine  in  a  right  spirit,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  stirred 
in  his  heart's  depths,  either  to  fervent  love,  or  to  new 
light,  or  to  longing  and  thirsting  for  God,  or  to 
detestation    and    loathing    of    his     sins,    or    to     that 


i8o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

spiritual  aspiration  by  which  the  soul  is  renewed  in 
grace." 

John  Tauler  was  born  at  Strassburg  about  1300, 
and  entered  a  Dominican  convent  in  131 5.  After 
studying  at  Cologne  and  Paris,  he  returned  to  Strass- 
burg, where,  as  a  Dominican,  he  was  allowed  to  officiate 
as  a  priest,  although  the  town  was  involved  in  the  great 
interdict  of  1324.  In  1339,  however,  he  had  to  fly 
to  Basel,  which  was  the  headquarters  of  the  revivalist 
society  who  called  themselves  "  the  Friends  of  God." 
About  1346  he  returned  to  Strassburg,  and  was 
devoted  in  his  ministrations  during  the  "  black  death  " 
in  1348.  He  appears  to  have  been  strongly  influenced 
by  one  of  the  Friends  of  God,  a  mysterious  layman, 
who  has  been  identified,  probably  wrongly,  with 
Nicholas  of  BaseV  and,  according  to  some,  dated  his 
"  conversion "  from  his  acquaintance  with  this  saintly 
man.  Tauler  continued  to  preach  to  crowded  con- 
gregations till  his  death  in    1361. 

Tauler  is  a  thinker  as  well  as  a  preacher.  Though 
in  most  points  his  teaching  is  identical  with  that  of 
Eckhart,^  he  treats  all  questions  in  an  independent 
manner,  and  sometimes,  as  for  instance  in  his  doctrine 
about  the  uncreated  ground  of  the  soul,^  he  differs  from 

'  By  Schmidt,  whose  researches  formed  the  basis  of  several  popular 
accounts  of  Tauler's  life.  Preger  and  Denifle  both  reject  the  identification 
of  the  mysterious  stranger  with  Nicholas ;  Denifle  doubts  his  existence 
altogether.     The  subject  is  very  fully  discussed  by  Preger. 

-  Tauler  was  well  read  in  the  earlier  mystics.  He  cites  Proclus, 
Augustine  (frequently),  Dionysius,  Bernard,  and  the  Victorines ;  also 
Aristotle  and  Aquinas. 

^  Tauler  adheres  to  the  doctrine  of  an  "  uncreated  ground,"  but  he  holds 
that  it  must  always  afct  upon  us  through  the  medium  of  the  "created 
ground."  He  evidently  considered  Eckhart's  later  doctrine  as  too 
pantheistic.     See  below,  p.  183.  ^ 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        i8i 

his  master.  There  is  also  a  perceptible  change  in  the 
stress  laid  upon  certain  parts  of  the  system,  which 
brings  Tauler  nearer  than  Eckhart  to  the  divines  of 
the  Reformation.  In  particular,  his  sense  of  sin  is 
too  deep  for  him  to  be  satisfied  with  the  Neoplatonic 
doctrine  of  its  negativity,  which  led  Eckhart  into 
difficulties,^ 

The  little  book  called  the  German  Theology^  by  an 
unknown  author,  also  belongs  to  the  school  of  Eckhart. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  precious  treasures  of  devotional 
literature,  and  deserves  to  be  better  known  than  it  is 
in  this  country.  In  some  ways  it  is  superior  to  the 
famous  treatise  of  a  Kempis,  On  the  Imitation  of  Christy 
since  the  self-centred  individualism  is  less  prominent. 
The  author  thoroughly  understands  Eckhart,  but  his 
object  is  not  to  view  everything  stib  specie  cetej-nitatis, 
but  to  give  a  practical  religious  turn  to  his  master's 
speculations.  His  teaching  is  closely  in  accordance 
with  that  of  Tauler,  whom  he  quotes  as  an  authority, 
and  whom  he  joins  in  denouncing  the  followers  of 
the  "  false  light,"  the  erratic  mystics  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

The  practical  theology  of  these  four  German  mystics 
of  the  fourteenth  century — Ruysbroek,  Suso,  Tauler, 
and  the  writer  of  the  German  Theology,  is  so  similar 
that  it  is  possible  to  consider  it  in  detail  without 
taking  each  author  separately.  It  is  the  crowning 
achievement  of  Christian  Mysticism  before  the  Reforma- 
tion ;    and,   except    in    the    English    Platonists    of   the 

^  Seep.  155.  In  my  estimate  of  Tauler's  doctrine,  I  have  made  no  use  of 
the  treatise  on  The  Imitation  of  the  Poverty  of  Christ,  which  Noack  calls  his 
masterpiece,  and  the  kernel  of  his  Mysticism.     The  work  is  not  by  Tauler. 


1 82  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

seventeenth  century,  we  shall  not  find  anywhere  a 
sounder  and  more  complete  scheme  of  doctrine  built 
upon  this  foundation. 

The  distinction  drawn  by  Eckhart  between  the  God- 
head and  God  is  maintained  in  the  German  Theology, 
and  by  Ruysbroek.  The  latter,  as  we  have  seen,^ 
does  not  shrink  from  following  the  path  of  analysis 
to  the  end,  and  says  plainly  that  in  the  Abyss  there 
is  no  distinction  of  Divine  and  human  persons,  but 
only  the  eternal  essence,  Tauler  also  bids  us  "  put 
out  into  the  deep,  and  let  down  our  nets " ;  but 
his  "  deep "  is  in  the  heart,  not  in  the  intellect. 
*'  My  children,  you  should  not  ask  about  these  great 
high  problems,"  he  says ;  and  he  prefers  not  to 
talk  much  about  them,  "  for  no  teacher  can  teach 
what  he  has  not  lived  through  himself."  Still  he 
speaks,  like  Dionysius  and  Eckhart,  of  the  "  Divine 
darkness,"  "  the  nameless,  formless  nothing,"  "  the 
wild  waste,"  and  so  forth ;)  and  says  of  God  that 
He  is  "  the  Unity  in  which  all  multiplicity  is  tran- 
scended," and  that  in  Him  are  gathered  up  both 
becoming  and  being,  eternal  rest  and  eternal  motion. 
In  this  deepest  ground,  he  says,  the  Three  Persons  are 
implicit,  not  explicit.  The  Son  is  the  Form  of  all 
forms,  to  which  the  "  eternal,  reasonable  form  created 
after  God's  image  "  (the  Idea  of  mankind)  longs  to  be 
conformed. 

The  creation  of  the  world,  according  to  Tauler,  is 
rather  consonant  with  than  necessary  to  the  nature  of 
God.  The  world,  before  it  became  actual,  existed  in 
its  Idea  in  God,  and  this  ideal  world  was  set  forth  by 

'  See  above,  p.  1 70. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        183 

means  of  the  Trinity.  It  is  in  the  Son  that  the  Ideas 
exist  "  from  all  eternity."  The  Ideas  are  said  to  be 
*'  living,"  that  is,  they  work  as  forms,  and  after  the 
creation  of  matter  act  as  universals  above  and  in  things. 
Tauler  is  careful  to  show  that  he  is  not  a  pantheist. 
'*  God  is  the  Being  of  all  beings,"  he  says  ;  "  but  He  is 
none  of  all  things."  God  is  all,  but  all  is  not  God  ; 
He  far  transcends  the  universe  in  which  He  is 
immanent. 

VVe  look  in  vain  to  Tauler  for  an  explanation  of  the 
obscurest  point  in  Eckhart's  philosophy,  as  to  the 
relations  of  the  phenomenal  to  the  real.  We  want 
clearer  evidence  that  temporal  existence  is  not  regarded 
as  something  illusory  or  accidental,  an  error  which  may 
be  inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  immanence  as  taught 
by  the  school  of  Eckhart,  but  which  is  too  closely  allied 
with  other  parts  of  their  scheme. 

The  indwelling  of  God  in  the  soul  is  the  real  centre 
of  Tauler's  doctrine,  but  his  psychology  is  rather 
intricate  and  difficult.  He  speaks  of  three  phases  of 
personal  life,  the  sensuous  nature,  the  reason,  and  the 
"  third  man  " — the  spiritual  life  or  pure  substance  of 
the  soul.  He  speaks  also  of  an  "  uncreated  ground," 
which  is  the  abyss  of  the  Godhead,  but  yet  "  in  us," 
and  of  a  "  created  ground,"  which  he  uses  in  a  double 
sense,  now  of  the  empirical  self,  which  is  imperfect  and 
must  be  purified,  and  now  of  the  ideal  man,  as  God 
intended  him  to  be.  This  latter  is  "  the  third  man," 
and  is  also  represented  by  the  "  spark  "  at  the  "  apex 
of  the  soul,"  which  is  to  transform  the  rest  of  the  soul 
into  its  own  likeness.  The  "  uncreated  ground,"  in 
Tauler,  works    upon    us   through   the  medium   of  the 


i84  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

y 

"  created  ground,"  and  not  as  in  Eckhart,  immediately. 
The  '*  created  ground,"  in  this  sense,  he  calls  "  the 
Image,"  which  is  identical  with  Eckhart's  "  spark."  It 
is  a  creative  principle  as  well  as  created,  like  the 
"  Ideas  "  of  Erigena. 

The  German  Theology  says  that  "  the  soul  has  two 
eyes,"  ^  one  of  which,  the  right  eye,  sees  into  eternity, 
the  other  sees  time  and  the  creatures.  The  "  right 
eye  "  is  practically  the  same  as  Eckhart's  "  spark  "  and 
Tauler's  "  image."  It  is  significant  that  the  author 
tells  us  that  we  cannot  see  with  both  eyes  together ;  the 
left  eye  must  be  shut  before  we  can  use  the  right.^ 
The  passage  where  this  precept  is  given  shows  very 
plainly  that  the  author,  like  the  other  fourteenth  century 
mystics,^  was  still  under  the  influence  of  mediaeval 
dualism — the  belief  that  the  Divine  begins  where  the 
earthly  leaves  off.  It  is  almost  the  only  point  in  this 
"  golden  little  treatise,"  as  Henry  More  calls  it,  to  which 
exception  must  be  taken.* 

^  This  expression  is  found  first,  I  think,  in  Richard  of  St.  Victor  ;  but 
St.  Augustine  speaks  of  "oculus  interior  atque  intelligibilis"  {De  div. 
qiuest.  46). 

^  But  Christ,  he  says,  could  see  with  both  eyes  at  once  ;  the  left  in 
no  way  hindered  the  right. 

*  Tauler  often  uses  similar  language  ;  as,  for  instance,  when  he  says, 
"The  natural  light  of  the  reason  must  be  entirely  brought  to  nothing,  if 
God  is  to  enter  with  His  light." 

''  Stockl  criticises  the  Theologia  Germanica  in  a  very  hostile  spirit.  He 
finds  it  in  "  pantheism,"  by  which  he  means  acosmism,  and  also  "  Gnostic- 
Manichean  dualism,"  the  latter  being  his  favourite  charge  against  the 
Lutherans  and  their  forerunners.  He  considers  that  this  latter  tendency 
is  more  strongly  marked  in  the  Ge7-iiian  Theology  than  in  the  other  works 
of  the  Eckhartian  school,  in  that  the  writer  identifies  "the  false  light" 
with  the  light  of  nature,  and  selfhood  with  sin;  "devil,  sin,  Adam,  old 
man,  disobedience,  selfhood,  individuality,  mine,  me,  nature,  self-will, 
are  all  the  same  ;  they  all  represent  what  is  against  God  and  without  God." 
Accordingly,  salvation  consists  in  annihilation  of  the  self,  and  substitution 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        185 

The  essence  of  sin  is  self-assertion  or  self-will,  and 
consequent  separation  from  God,  Tauler  has,  perhaps, 
a  deeper  sense  of  sin  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  and 
he  revives  the  Augustinian  (anti-Pelagian)  teaching  on 
the  miserable  state  of  fallen  humanity.  Sensuality  and 
pride,  the  two  chief  manifestations  of  self-will,  have 
invaded  the  zvkole  of  our  nature.  Pride  is  a  sin  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  poison  has  invaded  "  even  the  ground  " 
— the  "  created  ground,"  that  is,  as  the  unity  of  all  the 
faculties.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Neoplatonic 
doctrine  was  that  the  spiritual  part  of  our  nature  can 
take  no  defilement.  Tauler  seems  to  believe  that  under 
one  aspect  the  "  created  ground "  is  the  transparent 
medium  of  the  Divine  light,  but  in  this  sense  it  is  only 
potentially  the  light  of  our  whole  body.  He  will  not 
allow  the  sinless  apex  mentis  to  be  identified  with  the 
personality.  Separation  from  God  is  the  source  of  all 
misery.  Therein  lies  the  pain  of  hell.  The  human 
soul  can  never  cease  to  yearn  and  thirst  after  God ; 
"  and  the""'  greatest  pain "  of  the  lost  "  is  that  this 
longing  can  never  be  satisfied."  In  the  German 
Theology^  the  necessity  of  rising  above  the  "  I  "  and 
"  mine  "  is  treated  as  the  great  saving  truth.  "  When 
the   creature   claimeth   for  its   own  anything   good,  it 

of  God  for  it.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  writer  of  this  treatise  is  deeply 
impressed  with  the  beUef  that  the  root  of  sin  is  self-will,  and  that  the  new 
birth  must  be  a  complete  transformation  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  language  of  piety  is  less  guarded  than  that  of  dogmatic  disputation, 
and  that  the  theology  of  such  a  book  must  be  judged  by  its  whole  tendency. 
My  own  judgment  is  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  safer  than  Tauler  or 
Ruysbroek,  and  much  safer  than  Eckhart.  The  strongly-marked  "ethical 
dualism "  is  of  very  much  the  same  kind  as  that  which  we  find  in  St. 
John's  Gospel.  Taken  as  a  theory  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  evil,  it  no 
doubt  does  hold  out  a  hand  to  Manicheism  ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  the 
writer  meant  it  to  be  so  taken,  any  more  than  St.  John  did. 


1 86  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

goeth  astray."  "  The  more  of  self  and  me,  the  more  of 
sin  and  wickedness.  Be  simply  and  wholly  bereft  of 
self."  "  So  long  as  a  man  seeketh  his  own  highest 
good  because  it  is  his,  he  will  never  find  it.  For  so 
long  as  he  doeth  this,  he  seeketh  himself,  and  deemeth 
that  he  himself  is  the  highest  good."  (These  last 
sentences  are  almost  verbally  repeated  in  a  sermon 
by  John  Smith,  the  Cambridge  Platonist.) 

The  three  stages  of  the  mystic's  ascent  appear  in 
Tauler's  sermons.  We  have  first  to  practise  self- 
control,  till  all  our  lower  powers  are  governed  by  our 
highest  reason.  "  Jesus  cannot  speak  in  the  temple  of 
thy  soul  till  those  that  sold  and  bought  therein  are  cast 
out  of  it."  In  this  stage  we  must  be  under  strict  rule 
and  discipline.  "  The  old  man  must  be  subject  to  the 
old  law,  till  Christ  be  born  in  him  of  a  truth."  Of  the 
second  stage  he  says,  "  Wilt  thou  with  St.  John  rest  on 
the  loving  breast  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  thou  must  be 
transformed  into  His  beauteous  image  by  a  constant, 
earnest  contemplation  thereof."  It  is  possible  that  God 
may  will  to  call  thee  higher  still ;  then  let  go  all  forms 
and  images,  and  suffer  Him  to  work  with  thee  as  His 
instrument.  To  some  the  very  door  of  heaven  has 
been  opened — "  this  happens  to  some  with  a  convulsion 
of  the  mind,  to  others  calmly  and  gradually."  "  It  is 
not  the  work  of  a  day  nor  of  a  year."  "  Before  it  can 
come  to  pass,  nature  must  endure  many  a  death,  out- 
ward and  inward." 

In  the  first  stage  of  the  "  dying  life,"  he  says  else- 
where, we  are  much  oppressed  by  the  sense  of  our  in- 
firmities, and  by  the  fear  of  hell.  But  in  the  third,  "  all 
our  griefs  and  joys  are  a  sympathy  with  Christ,  whose 


PRACTICAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL        187 

earthly  life  was  a  mingled  web  of  grief  and  joy,  and  this 
life  He  has  left  as  a  sacred  testament  to  His  followers." 

These  last  extracts  show  that  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
and  the  imitation  of  His  life  on  earth,  have  their  due 
prominence  in  Tauler's  teaching.  It  is,  of  course,  true 
that  for  him,  as  for  all  mystics,  Christ  m  us  is  more 
than  Christ /<7r  us.  But  it  is  unfair  to  put  it  in  this 
way,  as  if  the  German  mystics  wished  to  contrast  the 
two  views  of  redemption,  and  to  exalt  one  at  the 
expense  of  the  other.  Tauler's  wish  is  to  give  the 
historical  redemption  its  true  significance,  by  showing 
that  it  is  an  universal  as  well  as  a  particular  fact. 
When  he  says,  "  We  should  worship  Christ's  humanity 
only  in  union  with  this  divinity,"  he  is  giving  exactly 
the  same  caution  which  St.  Paul  expresses  in  the  verse 
about  "  knowing  Christ  after  the  flesh." 

In  speaking  of  the  highest  of  the  three  stages, 
passages  were  quoted  which  advocate  a  purely  passive 
state  of  the  will  and  intellect.^  This  quietistic  tendency 
cannot  be  denied  in  the  fourteenth  century  mystics, 
though  it  is  largely  counteracted  by  maxims  of  an 
opposite  kind.  "  God  draws  us,"  says  Tauler,  "  in  three 
ways,  first,  by  His  creatures ;  secondly,  by  His  voice  in 
the  soul,  when  an  eternal  truth  mysteriously  suggests 

^  Throughout  the  fourteenth  century,  and  still  more  in  the  fifteenth,  we 
can  trace  an  increasing  prominence  given  to  subjugation  of  the  will  in 
mystical  theology.  This  change  is  to  be  attributed  partly  to  the  influence 
of  the  Nominalist  science  of  Duns  Scotus,  which  gradually  gained  (at  least 
in  this  point)  the  ascendancy  over  the  school  of  Aquinas.  It  may  be 
described  as  a  transition  from  the  more  speculative  Mysticism  towards 
quietism.  In  the  fourteenth  century  writings,  such  as  the  Theologia  Ger- 
manica,  we  merely  welcome  a  new  and  valuable  aspect  of  the  religious  life  ; 
but  since  the  change  is  connected  with  a  distrust  of  reason,  and  a  return  to 
the  standpoint  of  harsh  legalism,  we  cannot  regard  it  as  an  improvement. 


I  88  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

itself,  as  happens  not  infrequently  in  morning  sleep." 
(This  is  interesting,  being  evidently  the  record  of 
personal  experience.)  "  Thirdly,  without  resistance  or 
means,  when  the  will  is  quite  subdued."  "  What  is 
given  through  means  is  tasteless ;  it  is  seen  through  a 
veil,  and  split  up  into  fragments,  and  bears  with  it  a 
certain  sting  of  bitterness."  There  are  other  passages 
in  which  he  is  obviously  under  the  influence  of  Dio- 
nysius  ;  as  when  he  speaks  of"  dying  to  all  distinctions"; 
in  fact,  he  at  times  preaches  "  simplification "  in  an 
unqualified  form.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  Christian 
teachers  have  made  more  of  the  active  will  than  these 
pupils  of  Eckhart.^  "  Ye  are  as  holy  as  ye  truly  will  to 
be  holy,"  says  Ruysbroek.  "  With  the  will  one  may  do 
everything,"  we  read  in  Tauler.  And  against  the  per- 
version of  the  "  negative  road  "  he  says,  "  we  must  lop 
and  prune  vices,  not  nature,  which  is  in  itself  good  and 
noble."  And  "  Christ  Himself  never  arrived  at  the 
'  emptiness '  of  which  these  men  (the  false  mystics) 
talk."  Of  contemplation  he  says,  "  Spiritual  enjoy- 
ments are  the  food  of  the  soul,  and  are  only  to  be 
taken  for  nourishment  and  support  to  help  us  in  our 
active  work."  "  Sloth  often  makes  men  fain  to  be 
excused  from  their  work  and  set  to  contemplation. 
Never  trust  in  a  virtue  that  has  not  been  put  into 
practice."  These  pupils  of  Eckhart  all  led  strenuous 
lives  themselves,  and  were  no  advocates  of  pious 
indolence.  Tauler  says,  "  Works  of  love  are  more 
acceptable  to  God  than  lofty  contemplation " :  and, 
"  All  kinds  of  skill  are  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  2 

^  Compare  p.  i6i,  for  similar  teaching  in  Eckhart  himself. 
"  See  the  quotation  on  p.  11,  note. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        189 

The  process  of  deification  is  thus  described  by  Ruys- 
broek  and  by  Tauler.  Ruysbroek  writes:  "  All  men  who 
are  exalted  above  their  creatureliness  into  a  contem- 
plative life  are  one  with  this  Divine  glory — yea,  are  that 
glory.  And  they  see  and  feel  and  find  in  themselves, 
by  means  of  this  Divine  light,  that  they  are  the  same 
simple  Ground  as  to  their  uncreated  nature,  since  the 
glory  shineth  forth  without  measure,  after  the  Divine 
manner,  and  abideth  within  them  simply  and  without 
mode,  according  to  the  simplicity  of  the  essence. 
Wherefore  contemplative  men  should  rise  above  reason 
and  distinction,  beyond  their  created  substance,  and 
gaze  perpetually  by  the  aid  of  their  inborn  light,  and  so 
they  become  transformed,  and  one  with  the  same  light, 
by  means  of  which  they  see,  and  which  they  see. 
Thus  they  arrive  at  that  eternal  image  after  which  they 
were  created,  and  contemplate  God  and  all  things 
without  distinction,  in  a  simple  beholding,  in  Divine 
glory.  This  is  the  loftiest  and  most  profitable  con- 
templation to  which  men  attain  in  this  life."  Tauler, 
in  his  sermon  for  the  Fifteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity, 
says:  "  The  kingdom  is  seated  in  the  inmost  recesses  of 
the  spirit.  When,  through  all  manner  of  exercises,  the 
outward  man  has  been  converted  into  the  inward 
reasonable  man,  and  thus  the  two,  that  is  to  say,  the 
powers  of  the  senses  and  the  powers  of  the  reason,  are 
gathered  up  into  the  very  centre  of  the  man's  being, — 
the  unseen  depths  of  his  spirit,  wherein  lies  the  image 
of  God, — and  thus  he  flings  himself  into  the  Divine 
Abyss,  in  which  he  dwelt  eternally  before  he  was 
created ;  then  when  God  finds  the  man  thus  firmly 
down   and   turned  towards   Him,   the  Godhead  bends 


190  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

and  nakedly  descends  into  the  depths  of  the  pure 
waiting  soul,  and  transforms  the  created  soul,  drawing 
it  up  into  the  uncreated  essence,  so  that  the  spirit 
becomes  one  with  Him.  Could  such  a  man  behold 
himself,  he  would  see  himself  so  noble  that  he  would 
fancy  himself  God,  and  see  himself  a  thousand 
times  nobler  than  he  is  in  himself,  and  would  per- 
ceive all  the  thoughts  and  purposes,  words  and  works, 
and  have  all  the  knowledge  of  all  men  that  ever 
were."  Suso  and  the  German  Theology  use  similar 
language. 

The  idea  of  deification  startles  and  shocks  the 
modern  reader.  It  astonishes  us  to  find  that  these 
earnest  and  humble  saints  at  times  express  themselves 
in  language  which  surpasses  the  arrogance  even  of  the 
Stoics,  We  feel  that  there  must  be  something  wrong 
with  a  system  which  ends  in  obliterating  the  distinction 
between  the  Creator  and  His  creatures.  We  desire  in 
vain  to  hear  some  echo  of  Job's  experience,  so  different 
in  tone :  "  I  have  heard  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear, 
but  now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee  ;  therefore  I  abhor  myself, 
and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes."  The  proper  effect 
of  the  vision  of  God  is  surely  that  which  Augustine 
describes  in  words  already  quoted  :  "  I  tremble,  and 
I  burn.  I  tremble,  in  that  I  am  unlike  Him  ;  I  burn, 
in  that  I  am  like  Him."  Nor  is  this  only  the 
beginner's  experience  :  St.  Paul  had  almost  "  finished 
his  course  "  when  he  called  himself  the  chief  of  sinners. 
The  joy  which  uplifts  the  soul,  when  it  feels  the  motions 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  arises  from  the  fact  that  in  such 
moments  "  the  spirit's  true  endowments  stand  out 
plainly  from  its  false  ones  "  ;  we  then  see  the  "  counten- 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        191 

ance  of  our  genesis,"  as  St,  James  calls  it — the  man  or 
woman  that  God  meant  us  to  be,  and  know  that  we 
could  not  so  see  it  if  we  were  wholly  cut  off  from  its 
realisation.  But  the  clearer  the  vision  of  the  ideal,  the 
deeper  must  be  our  self-abasement  when  we  turn  our 
eyes  to  the  actual.  We  must  not  escape  from  this 
sharp  and  humiliating  contrast  by  mentally  annihilating 
the  self,  so  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  say,  "  Look 
on  this  picture,  and  on  thisT  Such  false  humility 
leads  straight  to  its  opposite  —  extreme  arrogance. 
Moreover,  to  regard  deification  as  an  accomplished 
fact,  involves,  as  I  have  said  (p.  33),  a  contradiction. 
The  process  of  unification  with  the  Infinite  must  be 
a  progressus  ad  infinitum.  The  pessimistic  conclusion 
is  escaped  by  remembering  that  the  highest  reality 
is  supra-temporal,  and  that  the  destiny  which  God 
has  designed  for  us  has  not  merely  a  contingent 
realisation,  but  is  in  a  sense  already  accomplished. 
There  are,  in  fact,  two  ways  in  which  we  may 
abdicate  our  birthright,  and  surrender  the  prize  of 
our  high  calling  :  we  may  count  ourselves  already  to 
have  apprehended,  which  must  be  a  grievous  delusion, 
or  we  may  resign  it  as  unattainable,  which  is  also  a 
delusion. 

These  truths  were  well  known  to  Tauler  and  his 
brother-mystics,  who  were  saints  as  well  as  philo- 
sophers. If  they  retained  language  which  appears  to 
us  so  objectionable,  it  must  have  been  because  they 
felt  that  the  doctrine  of  union  with  God  enshrined  a 
truth  of  great  value.  And  if  we  remember  the  great 
mystical  paradox,  "  He  that  will  lose  his  life  shall  save 
it,"  we  shall  partly  understand  how  they  arrived  at  it. 


192  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  nearer  we  approach  to  God,  the 
wider  seems  to  yawn  the  gulf  that  separates  us  from 
Him,  till  at  last  we  feel  it  to  be  infinite.  But  does  not 
this  conviction  itself  bring  with  it  unspeakable  com- 
fort ?  How  could  we  be  aware  of  that  infinite  distance, 
if  there  were  not  something  within  us  which  can  span 
the  infinite  ?  How  could  we  feel  that  God  and  man 
are  incommensurable,  if  we  had  not  the  witness  of 
a  higher  self  immeasurably  above  our  lower  selves  ? 
And  how  blessed  is  the  assurance  that  this  higher  self 
gives  us  access  to  a  region  where  we  may  leave  behind 
not  only  external  troubles  and  "  the  provoking  of  all 
men,"  but"  the  strife  of  tongues  "  in  our  own  hearts,  the 
chattering  and  growling  of  the  "  ape  and  tiger  "  within 
us,  the  recurring  smart  of  old  sins  repented  of,  and  the 
dragging  weight  of  innate  propensities  !  In  this  state 
the  will,  desiring  nothing  save  to  be  conformed  to  the 
will  of  God,  and  separating  itself  entirely  from  all  lower 
aims  and  wishes,  claims  the  right  of  an  immortal  spirit 
to  attach  itself  to  eternal  truth  alone,  having  nothing  in 
itself,  and  yet  possessing  all  things  in  God,  So  Tauler 
says,  "  Let  a  man  lovingly  cast  all  his  thoughts  and 
cares,  and  his  sins  too,  as  it  were,  on  that  unknown 
Will.  O  dear  child  !  in  the  midst  of  all  these  enmities 
and  dangers,  sink  thou  into  thy  ground  and  nothing- 
ness. Let  the  tower  with  all  its  bells  fall  on  thee  ;  yea, 
let  all  the  devils  in  hell  storm  out  upon  thee  ;  let 
heaven  and  earth  and  all  the  creatures  assail  thee,  all 
shall  but  marvellously  serve  thee  ;  sink  thou  into  thy 
nothingness,  and  the  better  part  shall  be  thine."  This 
hope  of  a  real  transformation  of  our  nature  by  the  free 
gift  of  God's   grace   is  the   only   message    of   comfort 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        193 

for   those   who    are   tied   and    bound  by    the   chain    of 
their  sins. 

The  error  comes  in,  as  I  have  said  before,  when  we 
set  before  ourselves  the  idea  of  God  the  Father,  or  of 
the  Absolute,  instead  of  Christ,  as  the  object  of  imita- 
tion. Whenever  we  find  such  language  as  that  quoted 
from  Ruysbroek,  about  "  rising  above  all  distinctions," 
we  may  be  sure  that  this  error  has  been  committed. 
Mystics  of  all  times  would  have  done  well  to  keep  in 
their  minds  a  very  happy  phrase  which  Irenaeus  quotes 
froiti  some  unknown  author,  "  He  spoke  well  who  said 
that  the  infinite  (immensum)  Father  is  measured  {inen- 
suratuni)  in  the  Son :  mensura  enini  Patris  Filiusr  ^ 
It  is  to  this  "  measure,"  not  to  the  immeasureable,  that 
we  are  bidden  to  aspire. 

Eternity  is,  for  Tauler,  "  the  everlasting  Now  " ;  but 
in  his  popular  discourses  he  uses  the  ordinary  expres- 
sions about  future  reward  and  punishment,  even  about 
hell  fire ;  though  his  deeper  thought  is  that  the  hope- 
less estrangement  of  the  soul  from  God  is  the  source 
of  all  the  torments  of  the  lost. 

Love,  says  Tauler,  is  the  "  beginning,  middle,  and 
end  of  virtue."  Its  essence  is  complete  self-surrender. 
We  must  lose  ourselves  in  the  love  of  God  as  a  drop 
of  water  is  lost  in  the  ocean. 

It  only  remains  to  show  how  Tauler  combats  the 
fantastic  errors  into  which  some  of  the  German  mystics 
had  fallen  in  his  day.  The  author  of  the  German 
Theology  is  equally  emphatic  in  his  warnings  against 
the  "  false  light  "  ;  and  Ruysbroek's  denunciation  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit  has  already  been  quoted. 
*  Irenseus,  Centra  ffcer,  iv,  6, 
13 


194  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

Tauler,  in  an  interesting  sermon,^  describes  the  heady 
arrogance,  disorderly  conduct,  and  futile  idleness  of  these 
fanatics,  and  then  gives  the  following  maxims,  by  which 
we  may  distinguish  the  false  Mysticism  from  the  true. 
"  Now  let  us  know  how  we  may  escape  these  snares  of 
the  enemy.  No  one  can  be  free  from  the  observance 
of  the  laws  of  God  and  the  practice  of  virtue.  No  one 
can  unite  himself  to  God  in  emptiness  without  true  love 
and  desire  for  God.  No  one  can  be  holy  without  becom- 
ing holy,  without  good  works.  No  one  may  leave  off 
doing  good  works.  No  one  may  rest  in  God  without  love 
for  God.  No  one  can  be  exalted  to  a  stage  which  he  has 
not  longed  for  or  felt."  Finally,  he  shows  how  the  example 
of  Christ  forbids  all  the  errors  which  he  is  combating. 

The  Imitation  of  Christ  has  been  so  often  spoken 
of  as  the  finest  flower  of  Christian  Mysticism,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  omit  all  reference  to  it  in  these  Lectures. 
And  yet  it  is  not,  properly  speaking,  a  mystical  treatise. 
It  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  mediaeval  Christianity  as  concen- 
trated in  the  life  of  the  cloister,  the  last  and  best 
legacy,  in  this  kind,  of  a  system  which  was  already 
decaying  ;  but  we  find  in  it  hardly  a  trace  of  that 
independence  which  made  Eckhart  a  pioneer  of  modern 
philosophy,  and  the  fourteenth  century  mystics  fore- 
runners of  the  Reformation.  Thomas  a  Kempis 
preaches  a  Christianity  of  the  heart  \  but  he  does  not 
exhibit  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  Mysticism. 
The  title  by  which  the  book  is  known  is  really  the  title 
of  the  first  section  only,  and  it  does  not  quite  accurately 
describe  the  contents  of  the  book.  Throughout  tlie 
treatise  we  feel  that  we  are  reading  a  defence  of  th^ 

'  No.  31,  on  Psaljn  xci.  13. 


PRACTICAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL        195 

recluse  and  his  scheme  of  life.  Self-denial,  renunciation 
of  the  world,  prayer  and  meditation,  utter  humility  and 
purity,  are  the  road  to  a  higher  joy,  a  deeper  peace, 
than  anything  which  the  world  can  give  us.  There  are 
many  sentences  which  remind  us  of  the  Roman  Stoics, 
whose  main  object  was  by  detachment  from  the  world 
to  render  themselves  invulnerable.  Not  that  Thomas 
a  Kempis  shrinks  from  bearing  the  Cross.  The  Cross 
of  Christ  is  always  before  him,  and  herein  he  is  superior 
to  those  mystics  who  speak  only  of  the  Incarnation. 
But  the  monk  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  perhaps 
more  thrown  back  upon  himself  than  his  predecessors 
in  the  fourteenth.  The  monasteries  were  no  longer 
such  homes  of  learning  and  centres  of  activity  as  they 
had  been.  It  was  no  longer  evident  that  the  religious 
orders  were  a  benefit  to  civilisation.  That  indifference 
to  human  interests,  which  we  feel  to  be  a  weak  spot  in 
mediaeval  thought  generally,  and  in  the  Neoplatonists 
to  whom  mediaeval  thought  was  so  much  indebted, 
reaches  its  climax  in  Thomas  a  Kempis.  Not  only 
does  he  distrust  "and  disparage  all  philosophy,  from 
Plato  to  Thomas  Aquinas,  but  he  shuns  society  and 
conversation  as  occasions  of  sin,  and  quotes  with 
approval  the  pitiful  epigram  of  Seneca,  "  Whenever  I 
have  gone  among  men,  I  have  returned  home  less  of  a 
man."  It  is,  after  all,  the  life  of  the  "  shell-fish,"  as 
Plato  calls  it,  which  he  considers  the  best.  The  book 
cannot  safely  be  taken  as  a  guide  to  the  Christian  life 
as  a  whole.  What  we  do  find  in  it,  set  forth  with 
incomparable  beauty  and  unstudied  dignity,  are  the 
Christian  graces  of  humility,  simplicity,  and  purity  of 
heart. 


196  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

It  is  very  significant  that  the  mystics,  who  had 
undermined  sacerdotalism,  and  in  many  other  ways 
prepared  the  Reformation,  were  shouldered  aside  when 
the  secession  from  Rome  had  to  be  organised.  The 
Lutheran  Church  was  built  by  other  hands.  And  yet 
the  mystics  of  Luther's  generation,  Carlstadt  and 
Sebastian  Frank,  are  far  from  deserving  the  con- 
temptuous epithets  which  Luther  showered  upon  them. 
Carlstadt  endeavoured  to  deepen  the  Lutheran  notion 
of  faith  by  bringing  it  into  closer  connexion  with  the 
love  of  God  to  man  and  of  man  to  God ;  Sebastian 
Frank  developed  the  speculative  system  of  Eckhart 
and  Tauler  in  an  original  -and  interesting  manner. 
But  speculative  Mysticism  is  a  powerful  solvent,  and 
Protestant  Churches  are  too  ready  to  fall  to  pieces 
even  without  it.  "  I  will  not  even  answer  such  men 
as  Frank,"  said  Luther  in  1545  ;  "I  despise  them  too 
much.  If  my  nose  does  not  deceive  me,  he  is  an 
enthusiast  or  spiritualist,  who  is  content  with  nothing 
but  Spirit,  spirit,  spirit,  and  cares  not  at  all  for  Bible, 
Sacrament,  or  Preaching."  The  teaching  which  the 
sixteenth  century  spurned  so  contemptuously  was 
almost  identical  with  that  of  Eckhart  and  Tauler, 
whose  names  were  still  revered.  But  it  was  not  wanted 
just  then.  It  was  not  till  the  next  generation,  when 
superstitious  veneration  for  the  letter  of  Scripture  was 
bringing  back  some  of  the  evils  of  the  unreformed 
faith,  that  Mysticism  in  the  person  of  Valentine  Weigel 
was  able  to  resume  its  true  task  in  the  deepening 
and  spiritualising  of  religion  in   Germany, 

But  instead  of  following  any  further  the  course  of 
mystical   theology  in   Germany,   I  wish  to  turn  for  a 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        197 

few  minutes  to  our  own  country.  I  am  the  more 
ready  to  do  so,  because  I  have  come  across  the  state- 
ment, repeated  in  many  books,  that  England  has  been 
a  barren  field  for  mystics.  It  is  assumed  that  the 
English  character  is  alien  to  Mysticism — that  we  have 
no  sympathy,  as  a  nation,  for  this  kind  of  religion. 
Some  writers  hint  that  it  is  because  we  are  too 
practical,  and  have  too  much  common  sense.  The 
facts  do  not  bear  out  this  view.  There  is  no  race, 
I  think,  in  which  there  is  a  richer  vein  of  idealism, 
and  a  deeper  sense  of  the  mystery  of  life,  than  our 
own.  In  a  later  Lecture  I  hope  to  illustrate  this 
statement  from  our  national  poetry.  Here  I  wish 
to  insist  that  even  the  Mysticism  of  the  cloister,  which 
is  the  least  satisfying  to  the  energetic  and  independent 
spirit  of  our  countrymen,  might  be  thoroughly  and 
adequately  studied  from  the  works  of  English  mystics 
alone.  I  will  give  two  examples  of  this  mediaeval 
type.  Both  of  them  lived  before  the  Reformation, 
near  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  but  in  them, 
as  in  Tauler,  we  find  very  few  traces  of  Romish  error. 

Walter  Hilton  or  Hylton,^  a  canon  of  Thurgarton, 
was  the  author  of  a  mystical  treatise,  called  The  Scale 
{or  Ladder)  of  Perfection.  The  following  extracts, 
which  are  given  as  far  as  possible  in  his  own  words, 
will  show  in  what  manner  he  used  the  traditional 
mystical  theology. 

^  Hilton's  book  has  been  reprinted  from  the  edition  of  1659,  with  an 
introduction  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Dalgairns.  Very  little  is  known  about  the 
author's  life,  but  his  book  was  widely  read,  and  was  "chosen  to  be  the 
guide  of  good  Christians  in  the  courts  of  kings  and  in  the  world."  The 
mother  of  Henry  VH.  valued  it  very  highly.  I  have  also  used  Mr.  Guy's 
edition  in  my  quotations  from  The  Scale  of  Pe7-fectioii. 


198  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

There  are  two  lives,  the  active  and  the  contemplat- 
ive, but  in  the  latter  there  are  many  stages.  The 
highest  state  of  contemplation  a  man  cannot  enjoy 
always,  "  but  only  by  times,  when  he  is  visited " ; 
"  and,  as  I  gather  from  the  writings  of  holy  men,  the 
time  of  it  is  very  short."  "  This  part  of  contemplation 
God  giveth  where  He  will."  Visions  and  revelations, 
of  whatever  kind,  "are  not  true  contemplation,  but 
merely  secondary.  The  devil  may  counterfeit  them  "  ; 
and  the  only  safeguard  against  these  impostures  is  to 
consider  whether  the  visions  have  helped  or  hindered 
us  in  devotion  to  God,  humility,  and  other  virtues. 

"  In  the  third  stage  of  contemplation,"  he  says  finely, 
"  reason  is  turned  into  light,  and  will  into  love." 

"  Spiritual  prayer,"  by  which  he  means  vocal  prayer 
not  in  set  words,  belongs  to  the  second  part  of  con- 
templation. "  It  is  very  wasting  to  the  body  of  him 
who  uses  it  much,  wounding  the  soul  with  the  blessed 
sword  of  love."  "  The  most  vicious  or  carnal  man  on 
earth,  were  he  once  strongly  touched  with  this  sharp 
sword,  would  be  right  sober  and  grave  for  a  great 
while  after."  The  highest  kind  of  prayer  of  all  is  the 
prayer  of  quiet,  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks,  "  I  will  pray 
with  the  understanding  also."  ^  But  this  is  not  for 
all ;  "  a  pure  heart,  indeed,  it  behoveth  him  to  have 
who  would  pray  in  this  manner." 

We  must  fix  our  affections  first  on  the  humanity  of 
Christ.  Since  our  eyes  cannot  bear  the  unclouded 
light  of  the  Godhead,  "  we  must  live  under  the  shadow 
of  His  manhood  as  long  as  we  are  here  below."     St. 

'  I  Cor.  xiv.  15.  This  text  was  also  appealed  to  by  the  Quietists  of  the 
post- Reformation  period. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        199 

Paul  tells  his  converts  that  he  first  preached  to  them  of 
the  humanity  and  passion  of  Christ,  but  afterwards  of 
the  Godhead,  how  that  Christ  is  the  power  and  wisdom 
of  God.i 

"  Christ  is  lost,  like  the  piece  of  money  in  the 
parable ;  but  where  ?  In  thy  house,  that  is,  in  thy 
soul.  Thou  needest  not  run  to  Rome  or  Jerusalem  to 
seek  Him.  He  sleepeth  in  thy  heart,  as  He  did  in  the 
ship ;  awaken  Him  with  the  loud  cry  of  thy  desire. 
Howbeit,  I  believe  that  thou  sleepest  oftener  to  Him 
than  He  to  thee."  Put  away  "  distracting  noises,"  and 
thou  wilt  hear  Him.  First,  however,  find  the  image 
of  sin,  which  thou  bearest  about  with  thee.  It  is  no 
todily  thing,  no  real  thing — only  a  lack  of  light  and 
love.  It  is  a  false,  inordinate  love  of  thyself,  from 
whence  flow  all  the  deadly  sins. 

"  Fair  and  foul  is  a  man's  soul — foul  without  like  a 
beast,  fair  within  like  an  angel."  "  But  the  sensual 
man  doth  not  bear  about  the  image  of  sin,  but  is  borne 
by  it." 

The  true  light  is  love  of  God,  the  false  light  is  love 
of  the  world.  But  we  must  pass  through  darkness  to 
go  from  one  to  the  other.  "  The  darker  the  night  is, 
the  nearer  is  the  true  day."  This  is  the  "  darkness  " 
and  "  nothing "  spoken  of  by  the  mystics,  "  a  rich 
nothing,"  when  the  soul  is  "  at  rest  as  to  thoughts  of 
any  earthly  thing,  but  very  busy  about  thinking  of 
God."  "  But  the  night  passeth  away ;  the  day 
dawneth."  "  Flashes  of  light  shine  through  the  chinks 
of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  ;  but  thou  art  not  there  yet." 

^  The  texts  to  which  he  refers  are  those  which  Origen  uses  in  the  same 
manner.     Compare  I  Cor.  i.  23,  ii.  2,  Gal.  vi.  14,  with  i  Cor.  i.  24. 


200  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

"  But  now  beware  of  the  midday  fiend,  that  feigneth 
Hght  as  if  it  came  from  Jerusalem.  This  light  appears 
between  two  black  rainy  clouds,  whereof  the  upper  one 
is  presumption  and  self-exaltation,  and  the  lower  a 
disdaining  of  one's  neighbour.  This  is  not  the  light  of 
the  true  sun."  This  darkness,  through  which  we  must 
pass,  is  simply  the  death  of  self-will  and  all  carnal 
affections ;  it  is  that  dying  to  the  world  which  is  the 
only  gate  of  life. 

The  way  in  which  Hilton  conceives  the  "  truly 
mystical  darkness "  of  Dionysius  is  very  interesting. 
As  a  psychical  experience,  it  has  its  place  in  the  history 
of  the  inner  life.  The  soul  does  enter  into  darkness, 
and  the  darkness  is  not  fully  dispelled  in  this  world  ; 
"  thou  art  not  there  yet,"  as  he  says.  But  the 
psychical  experience  is  in  Hilton  entirely  dissociated 
from  the  metaphysical  idea  of  absorption  into  the 
Infinite.  The  chains  of  Asiatic  nihilism  are  now 
at  last  shaken  off,  easily  and,  it  would  seem,  uncon- 
sciously. The  "  darkness  "  is  felt  to  be  only  the  herald 
of  a  brighter  dawn  :  "  the  darker  the  night,  the  nearer 
is  the  true  day."  It  is,  I  think,  gratifying  to  observe 
how  our  countryman  strikes  off  the  fetters  of  the  time- 
honoured  Dionysian  tradition,  the  paralysing  creed 
which  blurs  all  distinctions,  and  the  "  negative  road  " 
which  leads  to  darkness  and  not  light ;  and  how  in 
consequence  his  Mysticism  is  sounder  and  saner  than 
even  that  of  Eckhart  or  Tauler.  Before  leaving  Hilton, 
it  may  be  worth  while  to  quote  two  or  three  isolated 
maxims  of  his,  as  examples  of  his  wise  and  pure 
doctrine. 

"  There  are  two  ways  of  knowing  God — one  chiefly 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        201 

by  the  imagination,  the  other  by  the  understanding. 
The  understanding  is  the  mistress,  and  the  imagination 
is  the  maid." 

"  What  is  heaven  to  a  reasonable  soul  ?  Nought 
else  but  Jesus  God." 

"  Ask  of  God  nothing  but  this  gift  of  love,  which 
is  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  there  is  no  gift  of  God  that 
is  both  the  giver  and  the  gift,  but  this  gift  of  love." 

My  other  example  of  English  Mysticism  in  the 
Middle  Ages  is  Julian  or  Juliana  of  Norwich,^  to  whom 
were  granted  a  series  of  "  revelations "  in  the  year 
1373)  she  being  then  about  thirty  years  old.  She 
describes  with  evident  truthfulness  the  manner  in  which 
the  visions  came  to  her.  She  ardently  desired  to  have 
a  "  bodily  sight "  of  her  Lord  upon  the  Cross,  "  like 
other  that  were  Christ's  lovers  " ;  and  she  prayed  that 
she  might  have  "a  grievous  sickness  almost  unto  death," 
to  wean  her  from  the  world  and  quicken  her  spiritual 
sense.  The  sickness  came,  and  the  vision ;  for  they 
thought  her  dying,  and  held  the  crucifix  before  her,  till 
the  figure  on  the  Cross  changed  into  the  semblance  of 
the  living  Christ.  "  All  this  was  showed  by  three 
parts — that  is  to  say,  by  bodily  sight,  and  by  words 
formed  in  my  understanding,  and  by  ghostly  sight."  - 

^Julian  (1343-I443?)  was  probably  a  Benedictine  nun  of  Carrow,  near 
Norwich,  but  lived  for  the  greater  part  of  her  life  in  an  anchorage  in  the 
churchyard  of  St.  Julian  at  Norwich.  There  is  a  copy  of  her  Revelations 
in  the  British  Museum.  Editions  by  Cressy,  1670 ;  reprint  issued  1843  ; 
by  Collins,  1877,  See,  further,  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
In  my  quotations  from  her,  I  have  used  an  unpublished  version  kindly 
lent  me  by  Miss  G.  II.  Warrack.  It  is  just  so  far  modernised  as  to  be  in- 
telligible to  those  who  are  not  familiar  with  fourteenth  century  English. 

-This  was  a  recognised  classification.  Scaramelli  says,  "  Le  visioni 
corporee  sono  favori  propri  dei  principianti,  che  incomminciano  a  cam- 
minare  nella  via  dello  spirito.   .    .    .   Le  visioni  immaginari  sono  proprie 


202  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

"  But  the  ghostly  sight  I  cannot  nor  may  not  show  it 
as  openly  nor  as  fully  as  I  would."  Her  later  visions 
came  to  her  sometimes  during  sleep,  but  most  often 
when  she  was  awake.  The  most  pure  and  certain 
were  wrought  by  a  "  Divine  illapse  "  into  the  spiritual 
part  of  the  soul,  the  mind  and  understanding,  for  these 
the  devil  cannot  counterfeit.  Juliana  was  certainly  per- 
fectly honest  and  perfectly  sane.  The  great  charm  of 
her  little  book  is  the  sunny  hopefulness  and  happiness 
which  shines  from  every  page,  and  the  tender  affection 
for  her  suffering  Lord  which  mingles  with  her  devotion 
without  ever  becoming  morbid  or  irreverent.  It  is 
also  interesting  to  see  how  this  untaught  maiden  (for 
she  shows  no  traces  of  book  learning)  is  led  by  the 
logic  of  the  heart  straight  to  some  of  the  speculative 
doctrines  which  we  have  found  in  the  philosophical 
mystics.  The  brief  extracts  which  follow  will  illustrate 
all  these  statements. 

The  crucified  Christ  is  the  one  object  of  her  devo- 
tion. She  refused  to  listen  to  "  a  proffer  in  my 
reason,"  which  said,  "  Look  up  to  heaven  to  His 
Father."  "  Nay,  I  may  not,"  she  replied,  "  for  Thou 
art  my  heaven.  For  I  would  liever  have  been  in  that 
pain  till  Doomsday  than  to  come  to  heaven  otherwise 
than  by   Him."     "  Me  liked  none  other  heaven   than 

dei  principianti  e  dei  pioficienti,  che  non  sono  ancor  bene  purgati.  .  .  . 
Le  visioni  intellectuali  sono  proprie  di  quelli  che  si  trovano  gia  in  istato 
di  perfezione."  It  comes  originally  from  St.  Augustine  {De  Gen.  ad  litt. 
xii.  7,  n.  16):  "  Hsec  sunt  tria  genera  visionum.  .  .  .  Primum  ergo 
appellemus  corporale,  quia  per  corpus  percipitur,  et  corporis  sensibus  ex- 
hibetur.  Secundum  spirituale :  quidquid  eniin  corpus  non  est,  et  tamen 
aliquid  est,  iam  recte  dicitur  spiritus ;  et  utique  non  est  corpus,  quamvis 
corpori  similis  sit,  imago  absentis  corporis,  nee  iile  ipse  obtutus  quo 
cernitur.     Tertium  vero  intellecluale,  ab  intellectu." 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       203 

Jesus,  which  shall  be  my  bliss  when  I  come  there." 
And  after  describing  a  vision  of  the  crucifixion,  she 
says,  "  How  might  any  pain  be  more  than  to  see  Him 
that  is  all  my  life  and  all  my  bliss  suffer  ?  " 

Her  estimate  of  the  value  of  means  of  grace  is  very 
clear  and  sound.  "  In  that  time  the  custom  of  our 
praying  was  brought  to  mind,  how  we  use,  for  lack 
of  understanding  and  knowing  of  love,  to  make  [use 
of]  many  means.  Then  saw  I  truly  that  it  is  more 
worship  to  God  and  more  very  delight  that  we  faith- 
fully pray  to  Himself  of  His  goodness,  and  cleave 
thereto  by  His  grace,  with  true  understanding  and 
steadfast  by  love,  than  if  we  made  [use  of]  all  the 
means  that  heart  can  think.  For  if  we  made  [use  of] 
all  these  means,  it  is  too  little,  and  not  full  worship 
to  God ;  but  in  His  goodness  is  all  the  whole,  and 
there  faileth  right  nought.  For  this,  as  I  shall  say, 
came  into  my  mind.  In  the  same  time  we  pray  to 
God  for  [the  sake  of]  His  holy  flesh  and  precious 
blood,  His  holy  passion,  His  dearworthy  death  and 
wounds  :  and  all  the  blessed  kinship,  the  endless  life 
that  we  have  of  all  this,  is  His  goodness.  And  we 
pray  Him  for  [the  sake  of]  His  sweet  mother's  love, 
that  Him  bare ;  and  all  the  help  that  we  have  of  her 
is  of  His  goodness."  And  yet  "  God  of  His  goodness 
hath  advanced  means  to  help  us,  full  fair  and  many ; 
of  which  the  chief  and  principal  mean  is  the  blessed 
nature  that  He  took  of  the  maid,  with  all  the  means 
that  go  afore  and  come  after  which  belong  to  our 
redemption  and  to  endless  salvation.  Wherefore  it 
pleaseth  Him  that  we  seek  Him  and  worship  Him 
through  means,  understanding  and  knowing  that  He  is 


204  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

the  goodness  of  all.  For  the  goodness  of  God  is  the 
highest  prayer,  and  it  cometh  down  to  the  lowest  part 
of  our  need.  It  quickeneth  our  soul,  and  bringeth  it 
on  life,  and  maketh  it  for  to  wax  in  grace  and  virtue. 
It  is  nearest  in  nature  and  readiest  in  grace ;  for  it  is 
the  same  grace  that  the  soul  seeketh,  and  ever  shall 
seek  till  we  know  verily  that  He  hath  us  all  in  Himself 
beclosed." 

"  After  this  our  Lord  showed  concerning  Prayers. 
In  which  showing  I  see  two  conditions  signified  by  our 
Lord ;  one  is  rightfulness,  another  is  assured  trust. 
But  oftentimes  our  trust  is  not  full  ;  for  we  are  not 
sure  that  God  heareth  us,  as  we  think  because  of  our 
un worthiness,  and  because  we  feel  right  nought ;  for  we 
are  as  barren  and  dry  oftentimes  after  our  prayers  as 
we  were  before.  .  .  .  But  our  Lord  said  to  me,  '  I  am 
the  ground  of  thy  beseechings :  first,  it  is  My  will  that 
thou  have  it ;  and  then  I  make  thee  to  wish  for  it ; 
and  then  I  make  thee  to  beseech  it,  and  thou  be- 
seechest  it.  How  then  should  it  be  that  thou  shouldest 
not  have  thy  beseeching  ? '  .  .  .  For  it  is  most  impos- 
sible that  we  should  beseech  mercy  and  grace  and  not 
have  it.  For  all  things  that  our  good  Lord  maketh  us 
to  beseech.  Himself  hath  ordained  them  to  us  from 
without  beginning.  Here  may  we  see  that  our  be- 
seeching is  not  the  cause  of  God's  goodness ;  and  that 
showed  He  soothfastly  in  all  these  sweet  words  which 
He  saith :  '  I  am  the  ground.'  And  our  good  Lord 
willeth  that  this  be  known  of  His  lovers  in  earth ;  and 
the  more  that  we  know  it  the  more  should  we  beseech, 
if  it  be  wisely  taken  ;  and  so  is  our  Lord's  meaning. 
Merry  and  joyous  is  our  Lord  of  our  prayer,  and    He 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       205 

looketh  for  it ;  and  He  vvilleth  to  have  it ;  because 
with  His  grace  He  would  have  us  like  to  Himself  in 
condition  as  we  are  in  kind.  Therefore  saith  He  to 
us,  *  Pray  inwardly,  although  thou  think  it  has  no 
savour  to  thee :  for  it  is  profitable,  though  thou  feel 
not,  though  thou  see  not,  yea,  though  thou  think  thou 
canst  not,' " 

"  And  also  to  prayer  belongeth  thanksgiving.  Thanks- 
giving is  a  true  inward  knowing,  with  great  reverence 
and  lovely  dread  turning  ourselves  with  all  our  mights 
unto  the  working  that  our  good  Lord  stirreth  us  to, 
rejoicing  and  thanking  inwardly.  And  sometimes  for 
plenteousness  it  breaketh  out  with  voice  and  saith : 
Good  Lord !  great  thanks  be  to  Thee :  blessed  mote 
Thou  be." 

- "  Prayer  is  a  right  understanding  of  that  fulness  of 
joy  that  is  to  come,  with  great  longing  and  certain 
trust.  .  .  .  Then  belongeth  it  to  us  to  do  our  diligence, 
and  when  we  have  done  it,  then  shall  we  yet  think 
that  it  is  nought ;  and  in  sooth  it  is.  But  if  we  do  as 
we  can,  and  truly  ask  for  mercy  and  grace,  all  that 
faileth  us  we  shall  find  in  Him.  And  thus  meaneth 
He  where  He  saith :  '  I  am  the  ground  of  thy  beseech- 
ing.' And  thus  in  this  blessed  word,  with  the  Showing, 
I  saw  a  full  overcoming  against  all  our  weakness  and 
all  our  doubtful  dreads." 

Juliana's  view  of  human  personality  is  remarkable, 
as  it  reminds  us  of  the  Neoplatonic  doctrine  that  there 
is  a  higher  and  a  lower  self,  of  which  the  former  is 
untainted  by  the  sins  of  the  latter.  "  I  saw  and 
understood  full  surely,"  she  says,  "  that  in  every  soul 
that  shall  be  saved    there  is  a  godly  will  that  never 


2o6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

assented  to  sin,  nor  ever  shall ;  which  will  is  so  good 
that  it  may  never  work  evil,  but  evermore  continually 
it  willeth  good,  and  worketh  good  in  the  sight  of 
God.  .  .  .  We  all  have  this  blessed  will  whole  and 
safe  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  This  "  godly  will "  or 
"  substance "  corresponds  to  the  spark  of  the  German 
mystics. 

"  I  saw  no  difference,"  she  says,  "  between  God  and 
our  substance,  but,  as  it  were,  all  God.  And  yet  my 
understanding  took,  that  our  substance  is  in  God — 
that  is  to  say,  that  God  is  God,  and  our  substance  a 
creature  in  God.  Highly  ought  we  to  enjoy  that  God 
dwelleth  in  our  soul,  and  much  more  highly,  that  our 
soul  dwelleth  in  God.  .  .  .  Thus  was  my  understanding 
led  to  know,  that  our  soul  is  made  Trinity,  like  to  the 
unmade  Blessed  Trinity,  known  and  loved  from  with- 
out beginning,  and  in  the  making  oned  to  the  Maker. 
This  sight  was  full  sweet  and  marvellous  to  behold, 
peaceable  and  restful,  sure  and  delectable." 

"  As  anent  our  substance  and  our  sense-part,  both 
together  may  rightly  be  called  our  soul ;  and  that  is 
because  of  the  oneing  that  they  have  in  God.  The 
worshipful  City  that  our  Lord  Jesus  sitteth  in,  it  is 
our  sense-soul,  in  which  He  is  enclosed,  and  our  natural 
substance  is  beclosed  in  Jesus,  sitting  with  the  blessed 
soul  of  Christ  at  rest  in  the  Godhead."  Our  soul  can- 
not reach  its  full  powers  until  our  sense-nature  by  the 
virtue  of  Christ's  passion  be  "  brought  up  to  the  sub- 
stance." This  fulfilment  of  the  soul  "  is  grounded  in 
nature.  That  is  to  say,  our  reason  is  grounded  in 
God,  which  is  substantial  Naturehood ;  out  of  this 
substantial  Nature  mercy  and  grace  spring  and  spread 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        207 

into  us,  working  all  things  in  fulfilling  of  our  joy: 
these  are  our  ground,  in  which  we  have  our  increase 
and  our  fulfilling.  For  in  nature  we  have  our  life  and 
our  being,  and  in  mercy  and  grace  we  have  our  increase 
and  our  fulfilling." 

In  one  of  her  visions  she  was  shown  our  Lord 
•'  scorning  the  fiend's  malice,  and  noughting  his  un- 
might,"  "  For  this  sight  I  laught  mightily,  and  that 
made  them  to  laugh  that  were  about  me.  But  I  saw 
not  Christ  laugh.  After  this  I  fell  into  graveness, 
and  said,  '  I  see  three  things :  I  see'  game,  scorn,  and 
earnest.  I  see  game,  that  the  fiend  is  overcome ;  I  see 
scorn,  in  that  God  scorneth  him,  and  he  shall  be 
scorned ;  and  I  see  earnest,  in  that  he  is  overcome  by 
the  blissful  passion  and  death  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  was  done  in  full  earnest  and  with  sober 
travail.' " 

Alternations  of  mirth  and  sadness  followed  each 
other  many  times,  "  to  learn  me  that  it  is  speedful  to 
some  souls  to  feel  on  this  wise."  Once  especially  she 
was  left  to  herself,  "  in  heaviness  and  weariness  of  my 
life,  and  irksomeness  of  myself,  that  scarcely  I  could 
have  pleasure  to  live.  .  .  .  For  profit  of  a  man's  soul 
he  is  sometimes  left  to  himself;  although  sin  is  not 
always  the  cause ;  for  in  that  time  I  sinned  not,  where- 
fore I  should  be  so  left  to  myself ;  for  it  was  so  sudden. 
Also,  I  deserved  not  to  have  this  blessed  feeling.  But 
freely  our  Lord  giveth  when  He  will,  and  sufifereth  us 
to  be  in  woe  sometime.      And  both  is  one  love." 

Her  treatment  of  the  problem  of  evil  is  very  char- 
acteristic. "In  my  folly,  often  I  wondered  why  the 
beginning  of   sin  was  not    letted ;    but  Jesus,  in   this 


2o8  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

vision,  answered  and  said,  '  Sin  is  behovable,i  but  all 
shall  be  well,  and  all  shall  be  well,  and  all  manner  of 
thing  shall  be  well.'  In  this  naked  word  sin  our  Lord 
brought  to  my  mind  generally  all  that  is  not  good.  .  .  . 
But  I  saw  not  sin  ;  for  I  believe  it  had  no  manner  of  sub- 
stance, nor  any  part  of  being,  nor  might  it  be  known 
but  by  the  pain  that  is  caused  thereof ;  and  this  pain  .  .  . 
purgeth  and  maketh  us  to  know  ourself,  and  ask  mercy. 
In  these  same  words  (*  all  shall  be  well ')  I  saw  an  high 
and  marvellous  privity  hid  in  God."  She  wondered 
how  "  all  shall  be  well,"  when  Holy  Church  teacheth 
us  to  believe  that  many  shall  be  lost.  But  "  I  had 
no  other  answer  but  this,  '  I  shall  save  my  word  in  all 
things,  and  I  shall  make  all  thing  well. ' "  "  This  is 
the  great  deed  that  our  Lord  God  shall  do ;  but  what 
the  deed  shall  be,  and  how  it  shall  be  done,  there  is 
no  creature  beneath  Christ  that  knoweth  it,  ne  shall 
wit  it  till  it  is  done." 

"  I  saw  no  wrath  but  on  man's  party,"  she  says, 
"  and  that  forgiveth  He  in  us.  It  is  the  most  impos- 
sible that  may  be,  that  God  should  be  wroth.  .  .  .  Our 
life  is  all  grounded  and  rooted  in  love.  .  .  .  Suddenly 
is  the  soul  oned  to  God,  when  it  is  truly  peaced  in 
itself;  for  in  Him  is  found  no  wrath.  And  thus  I 
saw,  when  we  be  all  in  peace  and  love,  we  find  no 
contrariousness,  nor  no  manner  of  letting,  through  that 
contrariousness  which  is  now  in  us ;  nay,  our  Lord  God 
of  His  goodness  maketh  it  to  us  full  profitable."  No 
visions  of  hell  were  ever  showed  to  her.  In  place 
of  the  hideous  details  of  torture  which  some  of  the 
Romish  visionaries  describe  almost  with  relish,  Juliana 

*  That  is,  "  necessary"  or  "profitable." 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       209 

merely  reports,  "  To  me  was  showed  none  harder  hell 
than  sin." 

Again  ,  and  again  she  rings  the  changes  on  the 
words  which  the  Lord  said  to  her,  "  I  love  thee  and 
thou  lovest  Me,  and  our  love  shall  never  be  disparted 
in  two."  "  The  love  wherein  He  made  us  was  in  Him 
from  without  beginning ;  in  which  love,"  she  concludes, 
"  we  have  our  beginning,  and  all  this  shall  be  seen  in 
God  without  end." 


U 


LECTURE  VI 


BU 


"  O  heart,  the  equal  poise  of  Love's  both  parts, 
Big  alike  with  wounds  and  darts, 
Live  in  these  conquering  leaves,  live  still  the  same, 
And  walk  through  all  tongues  one  triumphant  flame  ! 
Live  here,  great  heart,  and  love  and  die  and  kill. 
And  bleed,  and  wound,  and  yield,  and  conquer  still. 
Let  this  immortal  life,   where'er  it  comes. 
Walk  in  a  crowd  of  loves  and  martyrdoms. 
Let  mystic  deaths  wait  on  it,  and  wise  souls  be 
The  love-slain  witnesses  of  this  life  of  thee. 
O  sweet  incendiary  !  show  here  thy  art 
Upon  this  carcase  of  a  hard,  cold  heart ; 
Let  all  thy  scattered  shafts  of  light,  that  play 
Among  the  leaves  of  thy  large  books  of  day, 
Combined  against  this  breast  at  once  break  in, 
And  take  away  from  rne  myself  and  sin  ; 
This  glorious  robbery  shall  thy  bounty  be. 
And  my  best  fortunes  such  fair  spoils  of  me. 
O  thou  undaunted  daughter  of  desires  ! 
By  all  thy  dower  of  lights  and  fires, 
By  all  the  eagle  in  thee,  all  the  dove, 
By  all  thy  lives  and  deaths  of  love, 
By  thy  large  draughts  of  intellectual  day, 
And  by  thy  thirsts  of  love  more  large  than  they  ; 
By  all  thy  brim-fill'd  bowls  of  fierce  desire. 
By  thy  last  morning's  draught  of  liquid  fire. 
By  the  full  kingdom  of  that  final  kiss 
That  seized  thy  parting  soul  and  seal'd  thee  His ; 
By  all  the  heavens  thou  hast  in  Him, 
Fair  sister  of  the  seraphim  ! 
By  all  of  Him  we  have  in  Thee, 
Leave  nothing  of  myself  in  me  : 
Let  me  so  read  thy  life,  that  I 
Unto  all  life  of  mine  may  die." 

Crashaw,   On  SL    Teresa. 

"In  a  dark  night, 
Burning  with  ecstasies  wherein  I  fell. 

Oh  happy  plight. 
Unheard  I  left  the  house  wherein  I  dwell. 
The  inmates  sleeping  peacefully  and  well. 

Secure  from  sight ; 
By  unknown  ways,  in  unknown  robes  concealed. 

Oh  happy  plight ; 
And  to  no  eye  revealed, 
My  home  in  sleep  as  in  the  tomb  was  sealed. 

Sweet  night,  in  whose  blessed  fold 

No  human  eye  beheld  me,  and  mine  eye 

None  could  behold. 
Only  for  Guide  had  I 
His  Face  whom  I  desired  so  ardently." 

St.  Juan  ok  the  Cross  (translated  by  Hutchings). 


LFXTURE    VI 

Practical  and  Devotional  Mysticism — continued 

"Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth 
that  I  desire  beside  Thee.  My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth  :  but  God  is  the 
strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for  ever." — Ps.  Ixxiii.  25,  26. 

We  have  seen  that  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation  in 
Germany  thrust  aside  speculative  Mysticism  with  im- 
patience. Nor  did  Christian  Platonism  fare  much 
better  in  the  Latin  countries.  There  were  students  of 
Plotinus  in  Italy  in  the  sixteenth  century,  who  fancied 
that  a  revival  of  humane  letters,  and  a  better  acquaint- 
ance with  philosophy,  were  the  best  means  of  combating 
the  barbaric  enthusiasms  of  the  North.  But  these 
Italian  Neoplatonists  had,  for  the  most  part,  no  deep 
religious  feelings,  and  they  did  not  exhibit  in  their  lives 
that  severity  which  the  Alexandrian  philosophers  had 
practised.  And  so,  when  Rome  had  need  of  a  Catholic 
mystical  revival  to  stem  the  tide  of  Protestantism,  she 
could  not  find  what  she  required  among  the  scholars 
and  philosophers  of  the  Papal  court.  The  Mysticism 
of  the  counter-Reformation   had  its  centre  in  Spain. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  Mysticism  is  the  philosophy  of 
Spain."  ^  This  does  not  mean  that  idealistic  philosophy 
flourished  in  the  Peninsula,  for  the  Spanish  race  has 
never  shown  any  taste  for  metaphysics.     The  Mysticism 

^  Rousselot,  Les  Mystiques  Espagnols,  p.  3. 
213 


2  14  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

of  Spain  is  psychological ;  its  point  of  departure  is  not 
the  notion  of  Being  or  of  Unity,  but  the  human  soul 
seeking  reconcilation  with  God.  We  need  not  be  on 
our  guard  against  pantheism  in  reading  the  Spanish 
mystics  ;  they  show  no  tendency  to  obliterate  the  divid- 
ing lines  of  personality,  or  to  deify  sinful  humanity.  The 
cause  of  this  peculiarity  is  to  be  sought  partly  in  the 
strong  individualism  of  the  Spanish  character,  and  partly 
in  external  circumstances.^  Free  thought  in  Spain  was 
so  sternly  repressed,  that  those  tendencies  of  mystical 
religion  which  are  antagonistic  to  Catholic  discipline 
were  never  allowed  to  display  themselves.  The  Spanish 
mystics  remained  orthodox  Romanists,  subservient  to 
their  "  directors  "  and  "  superiors,"  and  indefatigable  in 
making  recruits  for  the  cloister.  Even  so,  they  did  not 
escape  the  attention  of  the  Inquisition;  and  though 
two  among  them,  St.  Teresa  and  St.  Juan  of  the  Cross, 
were  awarded  the  badge  of  sanctity,  the  fate  of  Molinos 
showed  how  Rome  had  come  to  dread  even  the  most 
submissive  mystics. 

The  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  a  period 
of  high  culture  in  Spain.  The  universities  of  Salamanca 
and  Alcala  were  famous  throughout  Europe  ;  the  former 
is  said  (doubtless  with  great  exaggeration)  to  have 
contained  at  one  time  fourteen  thousand  students.  But 
the  Inquisition,  which  had  been  founded  to  suppress 
Jews  and  Mahometans,  was  roused  to  a  more  baneful 
activity  by  the  appearance  of  Protestantism  in  Spain. 
Before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Spanish 

^  Among  the  latter  must  be  mentioned  the  growth  of  Scotist  Nominalism, 
on  which  see  a  note  on  p.  187.  Ritschl  was  the  first  to  point  out  how 
strongly  Nominalism  influenced  the  later  Mysticism,  by  giving  it  its  quiet- 
istic  character.     See  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma  (Eng.  tr. ),  vol.  vi.  p.  107. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       215 

people,  who  up  to  that  time  had  been  second  to  none 
in  love  of  Hberty  and  many-sided  energy,  had  been 
changed  into  sombre  fanatics,  sunk  in  ignorance  and 
superstition,  and  retaining  hardly  a  trace  of  their  former 
buoyancy  and  healthy  independence.^  The  first  Index 
Expurgatorius  vfdiS  published  in  1546;  the  burning  of 
Protestants  began  in  1559.  Till  then,  Eckhart,  Tauler, 
Suso,  and  Ruysbroek  had  circulated  freely  in  Spain. 
But  the  Inquisition  condemned  them  all,  except 
Ruysbroek.  The  same  rigour  was  extended  to  the 
Arabian  philosophers,  and  so  their  speculations  in- 
fluenced Spanish  theology  much  less  than  might  have 
been  expected  from  the  long  sojourn  of  the  Moors 
in  the  Peninsula.  Averroism  was  known  in  Spain 
chiefly  through  the  medium  of  the  Fons  Vitce  of  Ibn 
Gebirol  (Avicebron).  Dionysius  and  the  scholastic 
mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages  were,  of  course,  allowed 
to  be  read.  But  besides  these,  the  works  of  Plato 
and  Plotinus  were  accessible  in  Latin  translations,  and 
were  highly  valued  by  some  of  the  Spanish  mystics. 
This  statement  may  surprise  those  who  have  identified 
Spanish  Mysticism  with  Teresa  and  Juan  of  the  Cross, 
and  who  know  how  little  Platonism  is  to  be  found  in 
their  theology.  But  these  two  militant  champions  of 
the  counter-Reformation  numbered  among  their  con- 
temporaries mystics  of  a  different  type,  whose  writings, 
little  known  in  this  country,  entitle  them  to  an  honour- 
able place  in  the  roll  of  Christian  Platonists. 

^  Cf.  the  beginning  of  the  Vida  de  Lazarillo  de  Tormes,  corregida  y  eme7i- 
dada por Jumt  de  Luna  {P&ns,  1620).  "The  ignorance  of  the  Spaniards 
is  excusable.  The  Inquisitors  are  the  cause.  They  are  dreaded,  not  only  by 
the  people,  but  by  the  great  lords,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  mere  mention 
of  the  Inquisition  makes  every  head  tremble  like  a  leaf  in  the  wind," 


2i6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

We  find  in  them  most  of  the  characteristic  doctrines 
of  Christian  Neoplatonism  :  the  radiation  of  all  things 
from  God  and  their  return  to  God  ;  the  immanence  of 
God  in  all  things ;  ^  the  notion  of  man  as  a  microcosm, 
vitally  connected  with  all  the  different  orders  of  creation  ;2 
the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  Christ  and  His  members  as 
"one  Christ  "  ;  ^  insistence  upon  disinterested  love ;  *  and 
admonitions  to  close  the  eye  of  sense.^  This  last  precept, 
which,  as  I  have  maintained,  is  neither  true  Platonism 
nor  true  Mysticism,  must  be  set  against  others  in  which 
the  universe  is  said  to  be  a  copy  of  the  Divine  Ideas, 
"  of  which  Plotinus  has  spoken  divinely,"  the  creation  of 
Love,  which  has  given  form  to  chaos,  and  stamped  it 
with  the  image  of  the  Divine  beauty ;  and  in  which 
we  are  exhorted  to  rise  through  the  contemplation  of 
nature  to  God.*'     Juan  de  Angelis,  in  his  treatise  on 

^  Pedro  Malon  de  Chaide  :  "  Las  cosas  en  Dios  son  mismo  Dies." 

^  Alejo  Venegas  in  Rousselot,  p.  78  :  Louis  de  Leon,  who  is  indebted  to 

the  Fotis  VitcE. 

^  Louis  de  Leon  :  "  The  members  and  the  head  are  one  Christ." 

*  Diego  de  Stella  affirms  the  mystic  paradox,  that  it  is  better  to  be  in 

hell  with  Christ  than  in  glory  without  Him  {Medit.  iii. ). 

^Juan  d'Avila :  "Let  us  put  a  veil  between  ourselves  and  all  created 

things." 

^  This  side  of  Platonism  appears  in   Pedro   Malon,  and  especially  in 

Louis  de  Granada.     Compare  also  the  beautiful  ode  of  Louis  de  Leon, 

entitled  "Noche  Serena,"  where  the  eternal  peace  of  the  starry  heavens  is 

contrasted  with  the  turmoil  of  the  world — 

"  Quien  es  el  que  esto  mira, 

Y  precia  la  bajeza  de  la  tierra, 

Y  no  gime  y  suspira 

Y  rompe  lo  que  encierra 

El  alma,  y  destos  bienes  la  destierra  ? 

Aqui  vive  al  contento, 

Aqui  reina  la  paz,  aqui  asentado 

En  rico  y  alto  asiento 

Esta  el  amor  sagrado 

De  glorias  y  deleites  rodeado." 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       217 

the  spiritual  nuptials,  quotes  freely,  not  only  from 
Plato,  Plotinus,  and  Virgil,  but  from  Lucretius,  Ovid, 
Tibullus,  and   Martial. 

But  this  kind  of  humanism  was  frowned  upon  by  the 
Church,  in  Spain  as  elsewhere.  These  were  not  the 
weapons  with  which  Lutheranism  could  be  fought 
successfully.  Juan  d'Avila  was  accused  before  the 
Inquisition  in  1534,  and  one  of  his  books  was  placed 
on  the  Index  of  1559  ;  Louis  de  Granada  had  to  take 
refuge  in  Portugal ;  Louis  de  Leon,  who  had  the 
courage  to  say  that  the  Song  of  Solomon  is  only  a 
pastoral  idyll,  was  sent  to  a  dungeon  for  five  years.^ 
Even  St.  Teresa  narrowly  escaped  imprisonment  at 
Seville ;  and  St.  Juan  of  the  Cross  passed  nine  months 
in  a  black  hole  at  Toledo. 

Persecution,  when  applied  with  sufficient  ruthlessness, 
seldom  fails  of  its  immediate  object.  It  took  only 
about  twelve  years  to  destroy  Protestantism  in  Spain  ; 
and  the  Holy  Office  was  equally  successful  in  binding 
Mysticism  hand  and  foot.^  And  so  we  must  not 
expect  to  find  in  St.  Teresa  or  St.  Juan  any  of  the 
characteristic  independence  of  Mysticism.  The  inner 
light  which  they  sought  was  not  an  illumination  of  the 
intellect  in  its  search  for  truth,  but  a  consuming  fire  to 

^  After  his  release  he  was  suflered  to  resume  his  lectures.  A  crowd  of 
sympathisers  assembled  to  hear  his  first  utterance  ;  but  he  began  quietly 
with  his  usual  formula,  "  Deciamos  ahora,"  "  We  were  saying  just  now." 

"  The  heresy  of  the  "  Alombrados  "  (lUuminati),  which  appeared  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  was  ruthlessly  crushed  by  the  Inquisition,  belonged 
to  the  familiar  type  of  degenerate  Mysticism.  Its  adherents  taught  that 
the  prayers  of  the  Church  were  worthless,  the  only  true  piayer  being  a 
kind  of  ecstasy,  without  words  or  mental  images.  The  "  illuminated  "  need 
no  sacraments,  and  can  commit  no  sins.  The  mystical  union  once  achieved 
is  an  abiding  possession.  There  was  another  outbreak  of  the  same  errors 
in  1623,  and  a  corresponding  sect  of  Illumines  in  Southern  France. 


2i8  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

burn  up  all  earthly  passions  and  desires.  Faith  pre- 
sented them  with  no  problems  ;  all  such  questions  had 
been  settled  once  for  all  by  Holy  Church.  They  were 
ascetics  first  and  Church  Reformers  next ;  neither  of 
them  was  a  typical  mystic.^ 

The  life  of  St.  Teresa  ^  is  more  interesting  than  her 
teaching.  She  had  all  the  best  qualities  of  her  noble 
Castilian  ancestors  —  simplicity,  straightforwardness, 
and  dauntless  courage ;  and  the  record  of  her  self- 
denying  life  is  enlivened  by  numerous  flashes  of 
humour,  which  make  her  character  more  lovable.  She 
is  best  known  as  a  visionary,  and  it  is  mainly  through 
her  visions  that  she  is  often  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  representative  mystics.  But  these  visions  do  not 
occupy  a  very  large  space  in  the  story  of  her  life.  They 
were  frequent  during  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  her 
convent  life,  and  again  between  the  ages  of  forty  and 
fifty :  there  was  a  long  gap  between  the  two  periods, 
and  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  her  life,  when  she 
was  actively  engaged  in  founding  and  visiting  religious 
houses,  she  saw  them  no  more.  This  experience  was 
that  of  many  other  saints  of  the  cloister.  Spiritual 
consolations  seem  to  be  frequently  granted  to  encourage 
young  beginners ;  ^  then  they  are  withdrawn,  and  only 
recovered  after  a  long  period  of  dryness  and  darkness  ; 

^  The  real  founder  of  Spanish  quietistic  Mysticism  was  Pedro  of  Alcantara 
(d.  1562).  He  was  confessor  to  Teresa.  Teresa  is  also  indebted  to  Fran- 
cisco de  Osuna,  in  whose  writings  the  principles  of  quietism  are  clearly 
taught.     Cf.  Heppe,  Geschichie  der  quietistichen  Mystik,  p.  9. 

^  The  fullest  and  best  account  of  St.  Teresa  is  in  Mrs.  Cunninghame 
Graham's  Life  and  Times  of  Satita  Teresa  (2  vols.  )■ 

•^  "  Ws.  in-.nginarice  visiones  regulariter  eveniunt  vel  incipientibus  vel 
proficientibus  nondum  bene  purgatis,  ut  communiter  tenent  mystse " 
{Lticern.  Myst.  Tract,  v.  3). 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        219 

but  in  later  life,  when  the  character  is  fixed,  and  the 
imagination  less  active,  the  vision  fades  into  the  light 
of  common  day.  In  considering  St.  Teresa's  visions, 
we  must  remember  that  she  was  transparently  honest 
and  sincere ;  that  her  superiors  strongly  disliked  and 
suspected,  and  her  enemies  ridiculed,  her  spiritual 
privileges ;  that  at  the  same  time  they  brought  her 
great  fame  and  influence ;  that  she  was  at  times 
haunted  by  doubts  whether  she  ever  really  saw  them ; 
and,  lastly,  that  her  biographers  have  given  them  a 
more  grotesque  and  materialistic  character  than  is 
justified  by  her  own  descriptions. 

She  tells  us  herself  that  her  reading  of  St.  Augustine's 
Confessions,  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  was  a  turning-point  in 
her  life.  "  When  I  came  to  his  conversion,"  she  says, 
"  and  read  how  he  heard  the  voice  in  the  garden,  it 
was  just  as  if  the  Lord  called  me."  It  was  after  this 
that  she  began  again  to  see  visions — or  rather  to  have 
a  sudden  sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  with  a  suspen- 
sion of  all  the  faculties.  In  these  trances  she  generally 
heard  Divine  "  locutions."  She  says  that  *'  the  words 
were  very  clearly  formed,  and  unmistakable,  though  not 
heard  by  the  bodily  ear.  They  are  quite  unlike  the 
words  framed  by  the  imagination,  which  are  muffled  " 
{cosa  sorda).  She  describes  her  visions  of  Christ  very 
carefully.  First  He  stood  beside  her  while  she  was 
in  prayer,  and  she  heard  and  saw  Him,  "  though  not 
with  the  eyes  of  the  body,  nor  of  the  soul."  Then 
by  degrees  "  His  sacred  humanity  was  completely 
manifested  to  me,  as  it  is  painted  after  the  Resur- 
rection." (This  last  sentence  suggests  that  sacred 
pictures,  lovingly  gazed  at,  may  have  been  the  source 


220  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

of  some  of  her  visions.)  Her  superiors  tried  to  per- 
suade her  that  they  were  delusions ;  but  she  replied, 
"If  they  who  said  this  told  me  that  a  person  who  had 
just  finished  speaking  to  me,  whom  I  knew  well,  was 
not  that  person,  but  they  knew  that  I  fancied  it,  doubt- 
less I  should  believe  them,  rather  than  what  I  had 
seen  ;  but  if  this  person  left  behind  him  some  jewels 
as  pledges  of  his  great  love,  and  I  found  myself  rich 
having  been  poor,  I  could  not  believe  it  if  I  wished. 
And  these  jewels  I  could  show  them.  For  all  who 
knew  me  saw  clearly  that  my  soul  was  changed ;  the 
difference  was  great  and  palpable."  The  answer  shows 
that  for  Teresa  the  question  was  not  whether  the 
manifestations  were  "  subjective "  or  "  objective,"  but 
whether  they  were  sent  by  God  or  Satan. 

One  of  the  best  chapters  in  her  autobiography,  and 
perhaps  the  most  interesting  from  our  present  point 
of  view,  is  the  allegory  under  which  she  describes  the 
different  kinds  of  prayer.  The  simile  is  not  original — it 
appears  in  St.  Augustine  and  others  ;  but  it  is  more  fully 
worked  out  by  St.  Teresa,  who  tells  us  "  it  has  always 
been  a  great  delight  to  me  to  think  of  my  soul  as  a 
garden,  and  of  the  Lord  as  walking  in  it."  So  here  she 
says,  "  Our  soul  is  like  a  garden,  rough  and  unfruitful, 
out  of  which  God  plucks  the  weeds,  and  plants  flowers, 
which  we  have  to  water  by  prayer.  There  are  four 
ways  of  doing  this — First,  by  drawing  the  water  from  a 
well ;  this  is  the  earliest  and  most  laborious  process. 
Secondly,  by  a  water-wheel  which  has  its  rim  hung 
round  with  little  buckets.  Third,  by  causing  a  stream 
to  flow  through  it.  Fourth,  by  rain  from  heaven. 
The  first  is  ordinary  prayer,  which  is  often  attended 


PRACTICAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL       221 

by  great  sweetness  and  comfort.  But  sometimes  the 
well  is  dry.  What  then  ?  The  love  of  God  does  not 
consist  in  being  able  to  weep,  nor  yet  in  delights 
and  tenderness,  but  in  serving  with  justice,  courage, 
and  humility.  The  other  seems  to  me  rather  to 
receive  than  to  give.  The  second  is  the  prayer  of 
quiet,  when  the  soul  understands  that  God  is  so  near 
to  her  that  she  need  not  talk  aloud  to  Him."  In  this 
stage  the  Will  is  absorbed,  but  the  Understanding  and 
Memory  are  still  active.  (Teresa,  following  the  scho- 
lastic mystics,  makes  these  the  three  faculties  of  the 
soul.)  In  the  third  stage  God  becomes,  as  it  were, 
the  Gardener.  "  It  is  a  sleep  of  the  faculties,  which 
are  not  entirely  suspended,  nor  yet  do  they  understand 
how  they  work."  In  the  fourth  stage,  the  soul  labours 
not  at  all ;  all  the  faculties  are  quiescent.  As  she 
pondered  how  she  might  describe  this  state,  "  the 
Lord  said  these  words  to  me :  She  (the  soul)  unmakes 
herself,  my  daughter,  to  bring  herself  closer  to  Me. 
It  is  no  more  she  that  lives,  but  I.  As  she  cannot 
comprehend  what  she  sees,  understanding  she  ceases  to 
understand."  Years  after  she  had  attained  this  fourth 
stagQ,  Teresa  experienced  what  the  mystics  call  "  the 
great  dereliction,"  a  sense  of  ineffable  loneliness  and 
desolation,  which  nevertheless  is  the  path  to  incomparable 
happiness.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  kind  of  catalepsy, 
with  muscular  rigidity  and  cessation  of  the  pulses. 

These  intense  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  spirit  are  the 
chief  events  of  Teresa's  life  for  eight  or  ten  years. 
They  are  followed  by  a  period  of  extreme  practical 
activity,  when  she  devoted  herself  to  organising  com- 
munities   of   bare-footed    Carmelites,    whose    austerity 


222  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

and  devotion  were  to  revive  the  glories  of  primitive 
Christianity.  In  this  work  she  showed  not  only 
energy,  but  worldly  wisdom  and  tact  in  no  common 
degree.  Her  visions  had  certainly  not  impaired  her 
powers  as  an  organiser  and  ruler  of  men  and  women. 
Her  labours  continued  without  intermission  till,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-seven,  she  was  struck  down  by  her  last 
illness.  "  This  saint  will  be  no  longer  wanted,"  she 
said,  with  a  sparkle  of  her  old  vivacity,  when  she  knew 
that  she  was  to  die. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  give  a  detailed  account  of 
St.  Teresa's  mystical  theology.  Its  cardinal  points  are 
that  the  religious  life  consists  in  complete  conformity 
to  the  will  of  God,  so  that  at  last  the  human  will 
becomes  purely  "  passive "  and  "  at  rest " ;  and  the 
belief  in  Christ  as  the  sole  ground  of  salvation,  on 
which  subject  she  uses  language  which  is  curiously  like 
that  of  the  Lutheran  Reformers.  Her  teaching  about 
passivity  and  the  "  prayer  of  quiet "  is  identical  with 
that  which  the  Pope  afterwards  condemned  in  Molinos  ; 
but  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  Teresa  was  not 
canonised  for  her  theology,  but  for  her  life,  and  that 
the  Roman  Church  is  not  committed  to  every  doctrine 
which  can  be  found  in  the  writings  of  her  saints.  The 
real  character  of  St.  Teresa's  piety  may  be  seen  best 
in  some  of  her  prayers,  such  as  this  which  follows : — 

"  O  Lord,  how  utterly  different  are  Thy  thoughts 
from  our  thoughts !  From  a  soul  which  is  firmly 
resolved  to  love  Thee  alone,  and  which  has  surrendered 
her  whole  will  into  Thy  hands,  Thou  demandest  only 
that  she  should  hearken,  strive  earnestly  to  serve  Thee, 
and  desire  only  to  promote  Thine  honour.     She  need 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       223 

seek  and  choose  no  path,  for  Thou  doest  that  for  her, 
and  her  will  follows  Thine  ;  while  Thou,  O  Lord,  takest 
care  to  bring  her  to  fuller  perfection." 

In  theory,  it  may  not  be  easy  to  reconcile  "  earnest 
striving "  with  complete  surrender  and  abrogation  of 
the  will,  but  the  logic  of  the  heart  does  not  find  them 
incompatible.  Perhaps  no  one  has  spoken  better  on 
this  matter  than  the  Rabbi  Gamaliel,  of  whom  it  is 
reported  that  he  prayed,  "  O  Lord,  grant  that  I  may 
do  Thy  will  as  if  it  were  my  will,  that  Thou  mayest  do 
my  will  as  if  it  were  Thy  will."  But  quietistic  Mysti- 
cism often  puts  the  matter  on  a  wrong  basis.  Self- 
will  is  to  be  annihilated,  not  (as  St.  Teresa  sometimes 
implies)  because  our  thoughts  are  so  utterly  different 
from  God's  thoughts  that  they  cannot  exist  in  the 
same  mind,  but  because  self-interest  sets  up  an 
unnatural  antagonism  between  them.  The  will,  like 
the  other  faculties,  only  realises  itself  in  its  fulness 
when  God  worketh  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of 
His  good  pleasure. 

St.  Juan  of  the  Cross,  the  fellow-workman  of  St. 
Teresa  in  the  reform  of  monasteries,  is  a  still  more 
perfect  example  of  the  Spanish  type  of  Mysticism. 
His  fame  has  never  been  so  great  as  hers ;  for  while 
Teresa's  character  remained  human  and  lovable  in  the 
midst  of  all  her  austerities,  Juan  carried  self-abnegation 
to  a  fanatical  extreme,  and  presents  the  life  of  holiness 
in  a  grim  and  repellent  aspect.  In  his  disdain  of  all 
compromise  between  the  claims  of  God  and  the  world, 
he  welcomes  every  kind  of  suffering,  and  bids  us  choose 
always  that  which  is  most  painful,  difficult,  and  humili- 
ating.     His    own    life  was    divided    between    terrible 


224  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

mortifications  and  strenuous  labour  in  the  foundation 
of  monasteries.  Though  his  books  show  a  tendency  to 
Quietism,  his  character  was  one  of  fiery  energy  and 
unresting  industry.  Houses  of  "  discalced  "  Carmelites 
sprang  up  all  over  Spain  as  the  result  of  his  labours. 
These  monks  and  nuns  slept  upon  bare  boards,  fasted 
eight  months  in  the  year,  never  ate  meat,  and  wore  the 
same  serge  dress  in  winter  and  summer.  In  some  of 
these  new  foundations  the  Brethren  even  vied  with 
each  other  in  adding  voluntary  austerities  to  this  severe 
rule.  It  was  all  part  of  the  campaign  against  Protest- 
antism. The  worldliness  and  luxury  of  the  Renaissance 
period  were  to  be  atoned  for  by  a  return  to  the  purity 
and  devotion  of  earlier  centuries.  The  older  Catholic 
ideal — the  mediseval  type  of  Christianity — was  to  be 
restored  in  all  its  completeness  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  This  essentially  militant  character  of  the 
movement  among  the  Carmelites  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of:  the  two  great  Spanish  mystics  were  before 
all  things  champions  of  the  counter- Reformation. 

The  two  chief  works  of  St.  Juan  are  The  Ascent  of 
Mount  Carmely  and  The  Obscure  Night  of  the  Soul. 
Both  are  treatises  on  quietistic  Mysticism  of  a  peculiar 
type.  At  the  beginning  of  La  Subida  de  Monte 
Cannelo  he  says,  "  The  journey  of  the  soul  to  the 
Divine  union  is  called  night  for  three  reasons :  the 
point  of  departure  is  privation  of  all  desire,  and  com- 
plete detachment  from  the  world ;  the  road  is  by  faith, 
which  is  like  night  to  the  intellect ;  the  goal,  which  is 
God,  is  incomprehensible  while  we  are  in  this  life." 

The   soul    in    its    ascent   passes    from   one  realm  of 
darkness  to  another.      First    there    is    the    "  night    of 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       225 

sense,"  in  which  the  things  of  earth  become  dark  to 
her.  This  must  needs  be  traversed,  for  "  the  creatures 
are  only  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  God's  table,  and 
none  but  dogs  will  turn  to  pick  them  up."  "  One 
desire  only  doth  God  allow — that  of  obeying  Him, 
and  carrying  the  Cross."  All  other  desires  weaken, 
torment,  blind,  and  pollute  the  soul.  Until  we  are 
completely  detached  from  all  such,  we  cannot  love 
God.  "  When  thou  dwellest  upon  anything,  thou  hast 
ceased  to  cast  thyself  upon  the  All."  "If  thou  wilt 
keep  anything  with  the  All,  thou  hast  not  thy  treasure 
simply  in  God."  "  Empty  thy  spirit  of  all  created 
things,  and  thou  wilt  walk  in  the  Divine  light,  for  God 
resembles  no  created  thing."  Such  is  the  method  of 
traversing  the  "  night  of  sense."  Even  at  this  early 
stage  the  forms  and  symbols  of  eternity,  which  others 
have  found  in  the  visible  works  of  God,  are  discarded 
as  useless.  "  God  has  no  resemblance  to  any  creature." 
The  dualism  or  acosmism  of  mediaeval  thought  has 
seldom  found  a,  harsher  expression. 

In  the  night  of  sense,  the  understanding  and  reason 
are  not  blind  ;  but  in  the  second  night,  the  night  of 
faith,  "  all  is  darkness."  "  Faith  is  midnight " ;  it  is 
the  deepest  darkness  that  we  have  to  pass  ;  for  in  the 
"  third  night,  the  night  of  memory  and  will,"  the  dawn 
is  at  hand.  "  Faith  "  he  defines  as  "  the  assent  of  the 
soul  to  what  we  have  heard  " — as  a  blind  man  would 
receive  a  statement  about  the  colour  of  an  object.  We 
must  be  totally  blind,  "  for  a  partially  blind  man  will 
not  commit  himself  wholly  to  his  guide."  Thus  for 
St.  Juan  the  whole  content  of  revelation  is  removed 
from  the  scope  of  the  reason,  and  is  treated  as  some- 
15 


226  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

thing  communicated  from  outside.  We  have,  indeed, 
travelled  far  from  St.  Clement's  happy  confidence  in 
the  guidance  of  reason,  and  Eckhart's  independence 
of  tradition.  The  soul  has  three  faculties — intellect, 
memory,  and  will.  The  imagination  {fantasia)  is  a 
link  between  the  sensitive  and  reasoning  powers,  and 
comes  between  the  intellect  and  memory .^  Of  these 
faculties,  "  faith  (he  says)  blinds  the  intellect,  hope  the 
memory,  and  love  the  will."  He  adds,  "  to  all  that  is 
not  God  "  ;  but  "  God  in  this  life  is  like  night."  He 
blames  those  who  think  it  enough  to  deny  themselves 
"  without  annihilating  themselves,"  and  those  who 
"  seek  for  satisfaction  in  God."  This  last  is  "  spiritual 
gluttony."  "  We  ought  to  seek  for  bitterness  rather 
than  sweetness  in  God,"  and  "  to  choose  what  is  most 
disagreeable,  whether  proceeding  from  God  or  the 
world."  "  The  way  of  God  consisteth  not  in  ways  of 
devotion  or  sweetness,  though  these  may  be  necessary 
to  beginners,  but  in  giving  ourselves  up  to  suffer." 
And  so  we  must  fly  from  all  "  mystical  phenomena " 
(supernatural  manifestations  to  the  sight,  hearing,  and 
the  other  senses)  "  without  examining  whether  they  be 
good  or  evil."  "  For  bodily  sensations  bear  no  propor- 
tion to  spiritual  things  "  ;  since  the  distance  "  between 
God  and  the  creature  is  infinite,"  "  there  is  no  essential 
likeness  or  communion  between  them."  Visions  are  at 
best  "  childish  toys " ;  "  the  fly  that  touches  honey 
cannot  fly,"  he  says  ;  and  the  probability  is  that  they 
come  from  the  devil.  For  "  neither  the  creatures,  nor 
intellectual   perceptions,   natural   or   supernatural,    can 

^  So  in  Plotinus  tpavraala  comes  between  (pvcn^  (the  lower  soul)  and  the 
perfect  apprehension  of  vovs, 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       227 

bring  us  to  God,  there  being  no  proportion  between 
them.  Created  things  cannot  serve  as  a  ladder ;  they 
are  only  a  hindrance  and  a  snare," 

There  is  something  heroic  in  this  sombre  interpreta- 
tion of  the  maxim  of  our  Lord,  "  Whosoever  he  be  of 
you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be 
My  disciple."  All  that  he  hath — "  yea,  and  his  own 
life  also  " — intellect,  reason,  and  memory — all  that  is 
most  Divine  in  our  nature — are  cast  down  in  absolute 
surrender  at  the  feet  of  Him  who  "  made  darkness  His 
secret  place.  His  pavilion  round  about  Him  with  dark 
water,  and  thick  clouds  to  cover  Him."  ^ 

In  the  "  third  night " — that  of  memory  and  will — 
the  soul  sinks  into  a  holy  inertia  and  oblivion  {santa 
ociosidad y  olvido),  in  which  the  flight  of  time  is  unfelt, 
and  the  mind  is  unconscious  of  all  particular  thoughts. 
St.  Juan  seems  here  to  have  brought  us  to  something 
like  the  torpor  of  the  Indian  Yogi  or  of  the  hesychasts 
of  Mount  Athos.  But  he  does  not  intend  us  to  regard 
this  state  of  trance  as  permanent  or  final.  It  is  the  last 
watch  of  the  night  before  the  dawn  of  the  supernatural 
state,  in  which  the  human  faculties  are  turned  into 
Divine  attributes,  and  by  a  complete  transformation  the 
soul,  which  was  "  at  the  opposite  extreme "  to  God, 
"  becomes,  by  participation,  God."  In  this  beatific 
state  "  one  might  say,  in  a  sense,  that  the  soul  gives 
God  to  God,  for  she  gives  to  God  all  that  she  receives 
of  God  ;  and   He  gives   Himself  to  her.      This  is  the 

^  St.  Juan  follows  the  medieval  mystics  in  distinguishing  between 
"  meditation  "  and  "contemplation."  "  Meditation,"  from  which  external 
images  are  not  excluded,  is  for  him  an  early  and  imperfect  stage  ;  he  who 
is  destined  to  higher  things  will  soon  discover  signs  which  indicate  that  it 
is  time  to  abandon  it. 


228  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

mystical  love-gift,  wherewith  the  soul  repayeth  all  her 
debt."  This  is  the  infinite  reward  of  the  soul  who  has 
refused  to  be  content  with  anything  short  of  infinity 
[no  se  llenan  menos  que  con  lo  Infinitd).  With  what 
yearning  this  blessed  hope  inspired  St.  Juan,  is  shown  in 
the  following  beautiful  prayer,  which  is  a  good  example 
of  the  eloquence,  born  of  intense  emotion,  which  we 
find  here  and  there  in  his  pages :  "  O  sweetest  love  of 
God,  too  little  known  ;  he  who  has  found  Thee  is  at 
rest ;  let  everything  be  changed,  O  God,  that  we  may 
rest  in  Thee,  Everywhere  with  Thee,  O  my  God, 
everywhere  all  things  with  Thee  ;  as  I  wish,  O  my  Love, 
all  for  Thee,  nothing  for  me — nothing  for  me,  every- 
thing for  Thee.  All  sweetness  and  delight  for  Thee, 
none  for  me — all  bitterness  and  trouble  for  me,  none 
for  Thee.  O  my  God,  how  sweet  to  me  Thy  presence, 
who  art  the  supreme  Good  !  I  will  draw  near  to  Thee 
in  silence,  and  will  uncover  Thy  feet,^  that  it  may  please 
Thee  to  unite  me  to  Thyself,  making  my  soul  Thy 
bride ;  I  will  rejoice  in  nothing  till  I  am  in  Thine  arms. 
O  Lord,  I  beseech  Thee,  leave  me  not  for  a  moment, 
because  I  know  not  the  value  of  mine  own  soul." 
/  Such  faith,  hope,  and  love  were  suffered  to  cast 
gleams  of  light  upon  the  saint's  gloomy  and  thorn- 
strewn  path.  But  nevertheless  the  text  of  which  we 
are  most  often  reminded  in  reading  his  pages  is  the  verse 
of  Amos :  "  Shall  not  the  day  of  the  Lord  be  darkness 
and  not  light  ?  even  very  dark,  and  no  brightness  in  it  ?" 
It  is  a  terrible  view  of  life  and  duty — that  we  are  to 
denude  ourselves  of  everything  that  makes  us  citizens 
of  the  world — that  nothing  which  is  natural  is  capable 

^  The  reference  is  to  Ruth  iii.  7. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       229 

of  entering  into  relations  with  God — that  all  which  is 
human  must  die,  and  have  its  place  taken  by  super- 
natural   infusion.       St.    Juan    follows   to   the   end    the 
"  negative  road  "  of  Dionysius,  without  troubling  him- 
self  at    all  with    the    transcendental    metaphysics     of 
Neoplatonism.      His  nihilism  or  acosmism   is  not  the 
result  of  abstracting  from  the  notion  of  Being  or  of 
unity  ;  its   basis    is  psychological.      It  is  "  subjective  " 
religion  carried  almost  to  its  logical  conclusion.     The 
Neoplatonists    were   led  on   by  the  hope  of  finding  a 
reconciliation  between  philosophy  and  positive  religion  ; 
but  no  such  problems  ever  presented  themselves  to  the 
Spaniards.     We  hear   nothing  of  the   relation  of  the 
creation  to  God,  or  why  the  contemplation  of  it  should 
only  hinder  instead  of  helping  us  to  know  its  Maker. 
The  world  simply  does  not  exist  for  St.  Juan ;  nothing 
exists  save  God  and  human  souls.      The  great  human 
society  has  no  interest  for  him  ;  he  would  have  us  cut 
ourselves  completely  adrift  from  the  aims  and  aspira- 
tions of  civilised  humanity,  and,  "  since  nothing  but  the 
Infinite  can  satisfy  us,"  to  accept    nothing   until   our 
nothingness  is  filled  with  the  Infinite.      He  does  not 
escape  from  the  quietistic  attitude  of  passive  expectancy 
which  belongs  to  this  view  of  life ;  and  it  is  only  by  a 
glaring  inconsistency  that  he  attaches  any  value  to  the 
ecclesiastical  symbolism,  which  rests  on  a  very  different 
basis    from    that    of   his    teaching.       But     St.    Juan's 
Mysticism  brought   him  no  intellectual   emancipation, 
either    for    good    or    evil.      Faith    with   him    was    the 
antithesis,  not  to  sights  as   in  the  Bible,  but  to  reason. 
The  sacrifice  of  reason  was  part  of  the  crucifixion  of 
the  old  man.      And  so  he  remained   in  'an  attitude  of 


230  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

complete  subservience  to  Church  tradition  and  author- 
ity, and  even  to  his  "  director,"  an  intermediary  who 
is  constantly  mentioned  by  these  post-Reformation 
mystics.  Even  this  unqualified  submissiveness  did  not 
preserve  him  from  persecution  during  his  lifetime,  and 
suspicion  afterwards.  His  books  were  only  authorised 
twenty-seven  years  after  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
1 591;  and  his  beatification  was  delayed  till  1674. 
His  orthodoxy  was  defended  largely  by  references  to 
St.  Teresa,  who  had  already  been  canonised.  But  it 
could  not  be  denied  that  the  quietists  of  the  next 
century  might  find  much  support  for  their  contro- 
verted doctrines  in  both  writers. 

St.  Juan's  ideal  of  saintliness  was  as  much  of  an 
anachronism  as  his  scheme  of  Church  reform.  But  no 
one  ever  climbed  the  rugged  peaks  of  Mount  Carmel 
with  more  heroic  courage  and  patience.  His  life  shows 
what  tremendous  moral  force  is  generated  by  complete 
self-surrender  to  God.  And  happily  neither  his  failure 
to  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  nor  his  one-sided  and 
defective  grasp  of  Christian  truth,  could  deprive  him  of 
the  reward  of  his  life  of  sacrifice — the  reward,  I  mean, 
of  feeling  his  fellowship  with  Christ  in  suffering.  He 
sold  "  all  that  he  had  "  to  gain  the  pearl  of  great  price, 
and  the  surrender  was  not  made  in  vain. 

The  later  Roman  Catholic  mystics,  though  they 
include  some  beautiful  and  lovable  characters,  do  not 
develop  any  further  the  type  which  we  have  found  in 
St.  Teresa  and  St.  Juan.  St.  Francis  de  Sales  has 
been  a  favourite  devotional  writer  with  thousands  in 
this  country.  He  presents  the  Spanish  Mysticism 
softened    and    polished    into    a   graceful   and   winning 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       231 

pietism,  such  as  might  refine  and  elevate  the  lives  of 
the  "  honourable  women  "  who  consulted  him.  The 
errors  of  the  quietists  certainly  receive  some  counten- 
ance from  parts  of  his  writings,  but  they  are  neutralised 
by  maxims  of  a  different  tendency,  borrowed  eclectically 
from  other  sources.^ 

A  more  consistent  and  less  fortunate  follower  of  St. 
Teresa  was  Miguel  de  Molinos,  a  Spanish  priest,  who 
came  to  Rome  about  1670.  His  piety  and  learning 
won  him  the  favour  of  Pope  Innocent  XL,  who,  accord- 
ing to  Bishop  Burnet,  "  lodged  him  in  an  apartment  of 
the  palace,  and  put  many  singular  marks  of  his  esteem 
upon  him."  In  1675  he  published  in  Italian  his 
Spiritual  Guide,  a  mystical  treatise  of  great  interest. 

Molinos  begins  by  saying  that  there  are  two  ways 
to  the  knowledge  of  God — meditation  or  discursive 
thought,  and  "  pure  faith  "  or  contemplation.  Contem- 
plation has  two  stages,  active  and  passive,  the  latter 
being  the  higher.^  Meditation  he  also  calls  the 
"  exterior  road  " ;  it  is  good  for  beginners,  he  says,  but 
can  never  lead  to  perfection.  The  "  interior  road,"  the 
goal  of  which  is  union  with  God,  consists  in  complete 
resignation  to  the  will  of  God,  annihilation  of  all  self- 

^  The  somewhat  feminine  temper  of  Francis  leads  him  to  attach  more 
value  to  fanciful  symbolism  than  would  have  been  approved  by  St>  Juan,  or 
even  by  St.  Teresa.  And  we  miss  in  him  that  steady  devotion  to  the 
Person  of  Christ,  and  to  Him  alone,  which  gives  the  Spaniards,  in  spite  of 
themselves,  a  sort  of  kinship  with  evangelical  Christianity.  St.  Juan  could 
never  have  written,  ' '  Honorez,  reverez,  et  respectez  d'un  amour  special  la 
sacree  et  glorieuse  Vierge  Marie.  Elle  est  mere  de  nostre  souverain  pere  et 
par  consequent  nostre  grand'mere"  (!). 

-  The  three  parts  into  which  the  book  is  divided  deal  respectively  with 
the  "  darkness  and  dryness"  by  which  God  purifies  the  heart ;  the  second 
stage,  in  which  he  insists,  complete  obedience  to  a  spiritual  director  is 
essential  ;  and  the  stage  of  higher  illumination. 


232  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

will,  and  an  unruffled  tranquillity  or  passivity  of  soul, 
until  the  mystical  grace  is  supernaturally  "  infused." 
Then  "  we  shall  sink  and  lose  ourselves  in  the 
immeasurable  sea  of  God's  infinite  goodness,  and  rest 
there  steadfast  and  immovable."  ^  He  gives  a  list  of 
tokens  by  which  we  may  know  that  we  are  called  from 
meditation  to  contemplation  ;  and  enumerates  four 
means,  which  lead  to  perfection  and  inward  peace — 
prayer,  obedience,  frequent  communions,  and  inner 
mortification.  The  best  kind  of  prayer  is  the  prayer  of 
silence ;  ^  and  there  are  three  silences,  that  of  words, 
that  of  desires,  and  that  of  thought.  In  the  last  and 
highest  the  mind  is  a  blank,  and  God  alone  speaks  to 
the  soul.^  With  the  curious  passion  for  subdivision 
which  we  find  in  nearly  all  Romish  mystics,  he 
distinguishes  three  kinds  of  "  infusa  contemplazione  " — 
(i)  satiety,  when  the  soul  is  filled  with  God  and 
conceives  a  hatred  for  all  worldly  things ;  (2)  "  un 
mentale  eccesso  "  or  elevation  of  the  soul,  born  of  Divine 
love  and  its  satiety;  (3)  "security."  In  this  state  the 
soul  would  willingly  even  go  to  hell,  if  it  were  God's 
will.  "  Happy  is  the  state  of  that  soul  which  has  slain 
and  annihilated  itself."  It  lives  no  longer  in  itself,  for  God 
lives  in  it.    "With  all  truth  we  may  say  that  it  is  deified." 


^  "Cola  c'  ingolfiano  e  ci  perdiamo  nel  mare  immenso  dell'  infinila  sua 
bonta  in  cui  restiamo  stabili  ed  immobili." 

^  It  is  interesting  to  find  the  "prayer  of  quiet"  even  in  Plotinus.  Cf. 
Enn.  V.  I.  6  :  "  Let  us  call  upon  God  Himself  before  we  thus  answer — not 
with  uttered  words,  but  reaching  forth  our  souls  in  prayer  to  Him  ;  for  thus 
alone  can  we  pray,  alone  to  Him  who  is  alone." 

^  He  speaks,  too,  of  "inner  recollection"  (il  raccoglimento  interiore), 
"mirandolo  dentro  te  medesima  nel  piu  intimo  del'  anima  tua,  senza 
forma,  specie,  modo  6  figura,  in  vista  e  generale  notitia  di  fede  amorosa  ed 
oscura,  senza  veruna  distinzione  di  perfezione  6  attributo." 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       233 

Molinos  follows  St.  Juan  of  the  Cross  in  disparaging 
visions,  which  he  says  are  often  snares  of  the  devil. 
And,  like  him,  he  says  much  of  the  "  horrible  tempta- 
tions and  torments,  worse  than  any  which  the  martyrs 
of  the  early  Church  underwent,"  which  form  part  of 
"  purgative  contemplation."  He  resembles  the  Spanish 
mystics  also  in  his  insistence  on  outward  observances, 
especially  *'  daily  communion,  when  possible,"  but 
thinks  frequent  confession  unnecessary,  except  for 
beginners. 

"  The  book  was  no  sooner  printed,"  says  Bishop 
Burnet,  "  than  it  was  much  read  and  highly  esteemed, 
both  in  Italy  and  Spain.  The  acquaintance  of  the 
author  came  to  be  much  desired.  Those  who  seemed 
in  the  greatest  credit  at  Rome  seemed  to  value  them- 
selves upon  his  friendship.  Letters  were  writ  to  him 
from  all  places,  so  that  a  correspondence  was  settled 
between  him  and  those  who  approved  of  his  method,  in 
many  different  places  of  Europe."  "  It  grew  so  much 
to  be  the  vogue  in  Rome,  that  all  the  nuns,  except 
those  who  had  Jesuits  to  their  confessors,  began  to  lay 
aside  their  rosaries  and  other  devotions,  and  to  give 
themselves  much  to  the  practice  of  mental  prayer." 

Molinos  had  written  with  the  object  of  "  breaking 
the  fetters "  which  hindered  souls  in  their  upward 
course.  Unfortunately  for  himself,  he  also  loosened 
some  of  the  fetters  in  which  the  Roman  priesthood 
desires    to    keep   the    laity .^      And   so,   instead    of  the 

^  Cf.  Bp.  Burnet :  "  In  short,  everybody  that  was  thought  either  sincerely 
devout,  or  that  at  least  affected  the  reputation  of  it,  came  to  be  reckoned 
among  the  Quietists ;  and  if  these  persons  were  observed  to  become  more 
strict  in  their  lives,  more  retired  and  serious  in  their  mental  devotions, 
yet  there  appeared  less  zeal  in  their  whole  deportment  as  to  the  exterior 


234  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

honours  which  had  been  grudgingly  and  suspiciously 
bestowed  on  his  predecessors,  Molinos  ended  his  days 
in  a  dungeon.^  His  condemnation  was  followed  by  a 
sharp  persecution  of  his  followers  in  Italy,  who  had 
become  very  numerous ;  and,  in  France,  Bossuet  pro- 
cured the  condemnation  and  imprisonment  of  Madame 
Guyon,  a  lady  of  high  character  and  abilities,  who  was 
the  centre  of  a  group  of  quietists.  Madame  de  Guyon 
need  not  detain  us  here.  Her  Mysticism  is  identical 
with  that  of  Saint  Teresa,  except  that  she  was  no 
visionary,  and  that  her  character  was  softer  and  less 
masculine.  Her  attractive  personality,  and  the  cruel 
and  unjust  treatment  which  she  experienced  during 
the  greater  part  of  her  life,  arouse  the  sympathy  of 
all  who  read  her  story  ;  but  since  my  present  object  is 
not  to  exhibit  a  portrait  gallery  of  eminent  mystics, 
but  to  investigate  the  chief  types  of  mystical  thought, 
it  will  not  be  necessary  for  me  to  describe  her  life 
or  make  extracts  from  her  writings.  The  character  of 
her  quietism  may  be  illustrated  by  one  example — the 

parts  of  the  religion  of  that  Church.  They  were  not  so  assiduous  at  Mass, 
nor  so  earnest  to  procure  Masses  to  be  said  for  their  friends  ;  nor  were  they 
so  frequently  either  at  confession  or  in  processions,  so  that  the  trade  of 
those  that  live  by  these  things  was  terribly  sunk." 

^  The  Spi7-itual  Guide  was  well  received  at  first  in  high  quarters  ;  but  in 
l68i  a  Jesuit  preacher  published  a  book  on  "the  prayer  of  quiet,"  which 
raised  a  storm.  The  first  commission  of  inquiry  exonerated  Molinos  ;  but 
in  1685  the  Jesuits  and  Louis  XIV.  brought  strong  pressure  to  bear  on  the 
Pope,  and  Molinos  was  accused  of  heresy.  Sixty-eight  *<alse  propositions 
were  extracted  from  his  writings,  and  formally  condemned.  They  include 
a  justification  of  disgraceful  vices,  which  Molinos,  who  was  a  man  of 
saintly  character,  could  never  have  taught.  But  though  the  whole  process 
against  the  author  of  the  Spiritual  Guide  was  shamefully  unfair,  the  book 
contains  some  highly  dangerous  teaching,  which  might  easily  be  pressed 
into  the  service  of  immorality.  Molinos  saved  his  life  by  recanting  all  his 
errors,  but  was  imprisoned  till  his  death,  about  1696.  In  1687  the  In- 
quisition arrested  200  persons  for  "quietist"  opinions. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        235 

hymn  on  "  The  Acquiescence  of  Pure  Love,"  translated 
by  Cowper : — 

"  Love  !  if  Thy  destined  sacrifice  am  I, 

Come,  slay  thy  victim,  and  prepare  Thy  fires  ; 
Plunged  in  Thy  depths  of  mercy,  let  me  die 
The  death  which  every  soul  that  loves  desires  ! 

I  watch  my  hours,  and  see  them  fleet  away  ; 

The  time  is  long  that  I  have  languished  here  ; 
Yet  all  my  thoughts  Thy  purposes  obey, 

With  no  reluctance,  cheerful  and  sincere. 

To  me  'tis  equal,  whether  Love  ordain 
My  life  or  death,  appoint  me  pain  or  ease 

My  soul  perceives  no  real  ill  in  pain  ; 
In  ease  or  health  no  real  good  she  sees. 

One  Good  she  covets,  and  that  Good  alone  ; 

To  choose  Thy  will,  from  selfish  bias  free 
And  to  prefer  a  cottage  to  a  throne, 

And  grief  to  comfort,  if  it  pleases  Thee. 

That  we  should  bear  the  cross  is  Thy  command 
Die  to  the  world,  and  live  to  self  no  more  ; 

Suffer  unmoved  beneath  the  rudest  hand. 
As  pleased  when  shipwrecked  as  when  safe  on  shore." 

Fenelon  was  also  a  victim  of  the  campaign  against 
the  quietists,  though  he  was  no  follower  of  Molinos. 
He  was  drawn  into  the  controversy  against  his  will  by 
Bossuet,  who  requested  him  to  endorse  an  unscru- 
pulous attack  upon  Madame  Guyon.  This  made  it 
necessary  for  Fenelon  to  define  his  position,  which  he 
did  in  his  famous  Maxims  of  the  Saints.  The  treatise 
is  important  for  our  purposes,  since  it  is  an  elaborate 
attempt  to  determine  the  limits  of  true  and  false 
Mysticism  concerning  two  great  doctrines  — "  dis- 
interested love  "  and  "passive  contemplation." 


236  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

On  the  former,  F^nelon's  teaching  may  be  sum- 
marised as  follows :  Self-interest  must  be  excluded 
from  our  love  of  God,  for  self-love  is  the  root  of  all 
evil.  This  predominant  desire  for  God's  glory  need 
not  be  always  explicit — it  need  only  become  so  on 
extraordinary  occasions ;  but  it  must  always  be 
implicit.  There  are  five  kinds  of  love  for  God : 
(i.)  purely  servile — the  love  of  God's  gifts  apart  from 
Himself;  (ii.)  the  love  of  mere  covetousness,  which 
regards  the  love  of  God  only  as  the  condition  of 
happiness ;  (iii.)  that  of  hope,  in  which  the  desire  for 
our  own  welfare  is  still  predominant ;  (iv.)  interested 
love,  which  is  still  mixed  with  self-regarding  motives  ; 
(v.)  disinterested  love.  He  mentions  here  the  "  three 
lives  "  of  the  mystics,  and  says  that  in  the  purgative 
life  love  is  mixed  with  the  fear  of  hell ;  in  the  illuminat- 
ive, with  the  hope  of  heaven ;  while  in  the  highest 
stage  "  we  are  united  to  God  in  the  peaceable  exercise 
of  pure  love."  "  If  God  were  to  will  to  send  the  souls 
of  the  just  to  hell  —  so  Chrysostom  and  Clement 
suggest — souls  in  the  third  state  would  not  love  Him 
less."  1  "  Mixed  love,"  however,  is  not  a  sin :  "  the 
greater  part  of  holy  souls  never  reach  perfect  dis- 
interestedness in  this  life."  We  ought  to  wish  for  our 
salvation,  because  it  is  God's  will  that  we  should  do  so. 
Interested  love  coincides  with  resignation,  disinterested 

^  This  "  mystic  paradox  "  has  been  mentioned  aheady.  It  is  developed 
at  length  in  the  Meditations  of  Diego  de  Stella.  Fenelon  says  that  it  is 
found  in  Cassian,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Augustine,  Anselm,  "and  a  great 
number  of  saints."  It  is  an  unfortunate  attempt  to  improve  upon  Job's 
fine  saying,  "Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him,"  or  the  line 
in  Homer  which  has  been  often  quoted—^;/  5^  ^det  koX  S\€ff<TOP,  iwel  vu 
Toi  eiiaSev  outus.  But  unless  we  form  a  very  unworthy  idea  of  heaven  and 
hell,  the  proposition  is  not  so  much  extravagant  as  self-contradictory. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       237 

with  holy  indifference.  "  St.  Francis  de  Sales  says 
that  the  disinterested  heart  is  like  wax  in  the  hands  of 
its  God." 

We  must  continue  to  co-operate  with  God's  grace, 
even  in  the  highest  stage,  and  not  cease  to  resist  our 
impulses,  as  if  all  came  from  God.  "  To  speak  other- 
wise is  to  speak  the  language  of  the  tempter."  (This 
is,  of  course,  directed  against  the  immoral  apathy 
attributed  to  Molinos.)  The  only  difference  between  the 
vigilance  of  pure  and  that  of  disinterested  love,  is  that 
the  former  is  simple  and  peaceable,  while  the  latter 
has  not  yet  cast  out  fear.  It  is  false  teaching  to  say 
that  we  should  hate  ourselves ;  we  should  be  in  charity 
with  ourselves  as  with  others!'  ^ 

Spontaneous,  unreflecting  good  acts  proceed  from 
what  the  mystics  call  the  apex  of  the  soul.  "  In  such 
acts  St.  Antony  places  the  most  perfect  prayer — 
unconscious  prayer." 

Of  prayer  he  says,  "  We  pray  as  much  as  we  desire, 
and  we  desire  as  much  as  we  love."  Vocal  prayer 
cannot  be  (as  the  extreme  quietists  pretend)  useless  to 
contemplative  souls ;  "  for  Christ  has  taught  us  a  vocal 
prayer." 

He  then  proceeds  to  deal  with  "  passive  contempla- 
tion," and  refers  again  to  the  "  unconscious  prayer " 
of  St.  Antony.  But  "  pure  contemplation  is  never 
unintermittent  in  this  life."  "  Bernard,  Teresa,  and 
John  say  that  their  periods  of  pure  contemplation 
lasted  not  more  than  half  an  hour."  "  Pure  con- 
templation," he  proceeds,  "  is  negative,  being  occupied 
with  no  sensible  image,  no  distinct  and  nameable  idea ; 

^  The  doctrine  here  condemned  is  Manichean,  says  Fenelon  rightly. 


238  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

it  stops  only  at  the  purely  intellectual  and  abstract 
idea  of  being."  Yet  this  idea  includes,  "  as  distinct 
objects,"  all  the  attributes  of  God — "  as  the  Trinity, 
the  humanity  of  Christ,  and  all  His  mysteries."  "  To 
deny  this  is  to  annihilate  Christianity  under  pretence 
of  purifying  it,  and  to  confound  God  with  7teant.  It  is 
to  form  a  kind  of  deism  which  at  once  falls  into 
atheism,  wherein  all  real  idea  of  God  as  distinguished 
from  His  creatures  is  rejected."  Lastly,  it  is  to 
advance  two  impieties — (i.)  To  suppose  that  there  is  or 
may  be  on  the  earth  a  contemplative  who  is  no  longer 
a  traveller,  and  who  no  longer  needs  the  way,  since  he 
has  reached  his  destination.  (ii.)  To  ignore  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  way  as  well  as  the  truth  and 
the  life,  the  finisher  as  well  as  the  author  of  our 
faith. 

This  criticism  of  the  formless  vision  is  excellent,  but 
there  is  a  palpable  inconsistency  between  the  definition 
of  "  negative  contemplation  "  and  the  inclusion  in  it  of 
"  all  the  attributes  of  God  as  distinct  objects."  Contra- 
dictions of  this  sort  abound  in  Fenelon,  and  destroy 
the  value  of  his  writings  as  contributions  to  religious 
philosophy,  though  in  his  case,  as  in  many  others,  we 
may  speak  of  "  noble  inconsistencies  "  which  do  more 
credit  to  his  heart  than  discredit  to  his  intellect.  We 
may  perhaps  see  here  the  dying  spasm  of  the  "  negative 
method,"  which  has  crossed  our  path  so  often  in  this 
survey. 

The  image  of  Jesus  Christ,  Fenelon  continues,  is  not 
clearly  seen  by  contemplatives  at  first,  and  may  be 
withdrawn  while  the  soul  passes  through  the  last 
furnace  of  trial ;  but  we  can  never  cease  to  need   Him, 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       239 

"  though  it  is  true  that  the  most  eminent  saints  are 
laccustomed  to  regard  Him  less  as  an  exterior  object 
than  as  the  interior  principle  of  their  lives."  They  are 
in  error  who  speak  of  possessing  God  in  His  supreme 
simplicity,  and  of  no  more  knowing  Christ  after  the 
flesh.  Contemplation  is  called  passive  because  it 
excludes  the  interested  activity  of  the  soul,  not  because 
it  excludes  real  action.  (Here  again  Fenelon  is  rather 
explaining  away  than  explaining  his  authorities.)  The 
culmination  of  the  "  passive  state  "  is  "  transformation," 
in  which  love  is  the  life  of  the  soul,  as  it  is  its  being 
and  substance.  "  Catherine  of  Genoa  said,  I  find  no 
more  me ;  there  is  no  longer  any  other  /  but  God." 
"  But  it  is  false  to  say  that  transformation  is  a  deifica- 
tion of  the  real  and  natural  soul,  or  a  hypostatic  union, 
or  an  unalterable  conformity  with  God,"  ^  In  the 
passive  state  we  are  still  liable  to  mortal  sin.  (It  is 
characteristic  of  Fenelon  that  he  contradicts,  without 
rejecting,  the  substitution-doctrine  plainly  stated  in  the 
sentence  from  Catherine  of  Genoa.) 

In  his  letter  to  the  Pope,  which  accompanies  the 
"  Explanation  of  the  Maxims,"  Fenelon  thus  sums  up 
his  distinctions  between  true  and  false  Mysticism  : — 

1.  The  "permanent  act  {i.e.  an  indefectible  state  of 
union  with  God)  is  to  be  condemned  as  "  a  poisoned 
source  of  idleness  and  internal  lethargy." 

2.  There  is  an  indispensable  necessity  of  the  distinct 
exercise  of  each  virtue. 

3.  "  Perpetual  contemplation,"   making    venial    sins 

'  St.  Bernard  {^De  diligendo  Deo,  x.  28)  gives  a  careful  statement  of  the 
deification-doctrine  as  he  vinderstands  it :  "  Quomodo  omnia  in  omnibus 
erit  Deus,  si  in  homine  de  homine  quicquara  supererit  ?  Alanebit  stibstantia 
sed  in  alia  forma"     See  Appendix  C, 


240  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

impossible,  and  abolishing  the  distinction  of  virtues,  is 
impossible. 

4.  "  Passive  prayer,"  if  it  excludes  the  co-operation 
of  free-will,  is  impossible, 

5.  There  can  be  no  "quietude"  except  the  peace  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  which  acts  in  a  manner  so  uniform 
that  these  acts  seem,  to  unscientific  persons,  not  distinct 
acts,  but  a  single  and  permanent  unity  with  God. 

6.  That  the  doctrine  of  pure  love  may  not  serve  as 
an  asylum  for  the  errors  of  the  Quietists,  we  assert  that 
hope  must  always  abide,  as  saith  St.  Paul. 

7.  The  state  of  pure  love  is  very  rare,  and  it  is 
intermittent. 

In  reply  to  this  manifesto,  the  "  Three  Prelates  "  ^ 
rejoin  that  Fenelon  keeps  the  name  of  hope  but  takes 
away  the  thing ;  that  he  really  preaches  indifference  to 
salvation  ;  that  he  is  in  danger  of  regarding  contempla- 
tion of  Christ  as  a  descent  from  the  heights  of  pure 
contemplation  ;  that  he  unaccountably  says  nothing  of 
the  "  love  of  gratitude "  to  God  and  our  Redeemer ; 
that  he  "  erects  the  rare  and  transient  experiences  of  a 
few  saints  into  a  rule  of  faith." 

In  this  controversy  about  disinterested  love,  our 
sympathies  are  chiefly,  but  not  entirely,  with  Fenelon. 
The  standpoint  of  Bossuet  is  not  religious  at  all. 
"  Pure  love,"  he  says  almost  coarsely,  "  is  opposed  to  the 
essence  of  love,  which  always  desires  the  enjoyment  of 
its  object,  as  well  as  to  the  nature  of  man,  who  neces- 
sarily desires  happiness."  Most  of  us  will  rather  agree 
with  St.  Bernard,  that  love,  as  such,  desires  nothing  but 

^  The  Archbishop  of  Paris,   the   Bishop  of  Me^^^U?;  (Bossuet),   and  the. 
Bishop  of  Chartres. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       24 1 

reciprocation — "  verus  amor  se  ipso  contentus  est : 
habet  prcemium,  sed  id  quod  amatur."  If  the  question 
had  been  simply  whether  reHgion  is  or  is  not  in  its 
nature  mercenary,  we  should  have  felt  no  doubt  on 
which  side  the  truth  lay.  Self-regarding  hopes  and 
schemes  may  be  schoolmasters  to  bring  us  to  Christ ; 
it  seems,  indeed,  to  be  part  of  our  education  to  form 
them,  and  then  see  them  shattered  one  after  another, 
that  better  and  deeper  hopes  may  be  constructed  out 
of  the  fragments  ;  but  a  selfish  Christianity  is  a  contra- 
diction in  terms.  But  F^nelon,  in  his  teaching  about 
disinterested  love,  goes  further  than  this.  "  A  man's 
self,"  he  says,  "  is  his  own  greatest  cross."  "  We  must 
therefore  become  strangers  to  this  self,  this  mot." 
Resignation  is  not  a  remedy  ;  for  "  resignation  suffers 
in  suffering ;  one  is  as  two  persons  in  resignation  ;  it  is 
only  pure  love  that  loves  to  suffer."  This  is  the  thought 
with  which  many  of  us  are  familiar  in  James  Hinton's 
Mystery  of  Pain.  It  is  at  bottom  Stoical  or  Buddhistic, 
in  spite  of  the  emotional  turn  given  to  it  by  Fenelon. 
Logically,  it  should  lead  to  the  destruction  of  love ;  for 
love  requires  two  living  factors,^  and  the  person  who 
has  attained  a  "  holy  indifference,"  who  has  passed 
wholly  out  of  self,  is  as  incapable  of  love  as  of  any 
other  emotion.  The  attempt  "  to  wind  ourselves  too 
high  for  mortal  man "  has  resulted,  as  usual,  in  two 
opposite  errors.     We  find,  on  the  one  hand,  some  who 

^  If  two  beings  are  separate,  they  cannot  influence  each  other  inwardly. 
If  they  are  not  distinct,  there  can  be  no  relations  between  them.  Man  is 
at  once  organ  and  organism,  and  this  is  why  love  between  man  and  God 
is  possible.  The  importance  of  maintaining  that  action  between  man  and 
God  must  be  reciprocal,  is  well  shown  by  Lilienfeld,  Gedanken  iiber  die 
Socialwissinschaft  der  Zukunfi,  vol.  v.  p.  472  sq, 
16 


242  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

try  to  escape  the  daily  sacrifices  which  life  demands, 
by  declaring  themselves  bankrupt  to  start  with.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  find  men  like  Fenelon,  who  are 
too  good  Christians  to  wish  to  shift  their  crosses  in 
this  way ;  but  who  allow  their  doctrines  of  "  holy 
indifference  "  and  "  pure  love  "  to  impart  an  excessive 
sternness  to  their  teaching,  and  demand  from  us  an 
impossible  degree  of  detachment  and  renunciation. 

The  importance  attached  to  the  "  prayer  of  quiet " 
can  only  be  understood  when  we  remember  how  much 
mechanical  recitation  of  forms  of  prayer  was  enjoined 
by  Romish  "  directors."  It  is,  of  course,  possible  for 
the  soul  to  commune  with  God  without  words,  perhaps 
even  without  thoughts  ;  ^  but  the  recorded  prayers  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  will  not  allow  us  to  regard  these 
ecstatic  states  as  better  than  vocal  prayer,  when  the 
latter  is  offered  "  with  the  spirit,  and  with  the  under- 
standing also." 

The  quietistic  controversy  in  France  was  carried  on 
in  an  atmosphere  of  political  intrigues  and  private 
jealousies,  which  in  no  way  concern  us.  But  the  great 
fact  which  stands  out  above  the  turmoil  of  calumny  and 
misrepresentation  is  that  the  Roman  Church,  which  in 
sore  straits  had  called  in  the  help  of  quietistic  Mysti- 
cism to  stem  the  flood  of  Protestantism,  at  length  found 
the  alliance  too  dangerous,  and  disbanded  her  irregular 
troops  in  spite  of  their  promises  to  submit  to  discipline. 
In  Fenelon,  Mysticism  had  a  champion  eloquent  and 
learned,  and  not  too  logical  to  repudiate  with  honest 
conviction  consequences  which  some  of  his  authorities 

"  Thought  was  not,"  says  Wordsworth  of  one  in  a  state  of  rapture  ; 
and  again,  "  All  his  thoughts  were  steeped  in  feeling." 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL        243 

had  found  it  necessary  to  accept.  He  remained  a 
loyal  and  submissive  son  of  the  Church,  as  did  Molinos  ; 
and  was,  in  fact,  more  guarded  in  his  statements  than 
Bossuet,  who  in  his  ignorance  of  mystical  theology 
often  blundered  into  dangerous  admissions.^  But  the 
Jesuits  saw  with  their  usual  acumen  that  Mysticism, 
even  in  the  most  submissive  guise,  is  an  independent 
and  turbulent  spirit ;  and  by  condemning  Fenelon  as 
well  as  Molinos,  they  crushed  it  out  as  a  religious 
movement  in  the  Latin  countries. 

To  us  it  seems  that  the  Mysticism  of  the  counter- 
Reformation  was  bound  to  fail,  because  it  was  the 
revival  of  a  perverted,  or  at  best  a  one-sided  type.  The 
most  consistent  quietists  were  perhaps  those  who 
brought  the  doctrine  of  quietism  into  most  discredit, 
such  as  the  hesychasts  of  Mount  Athos.  For  at  bottom 
it  rests  upon  that  dualistic  or  rather  acosmistic  view 
of  life  which  prevailed  from  the  decay  of  the  Roman 
Empire  till  the  Renaissance  and  Reformation.  Its 
cosmology  is  one  which  leaves  this  world  out  of  account 
except  as  a  training  ground  for  souls ;  its  theory  of 
knowledge  draws  a  hard  and  fast  line  between  natural 
and  supernatural  truths,  and  then  tries  to  bring  them 
together  by  intercalating  "  supernatural  phenomena  "  in 
the  order  of  nature ;  and  in  ethics  it  paralyses  morality 
by  teaching  with  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  that  "  to  love 
God  secundum  se  is  more  meritorious  than  to  love  our 

^  ^.^. ,  he  writes  to  Madame  Giiyon,  "Jen'ai  jamais  hesiteun  seul  moment 
sur  les  etats  de  Sainte  Therese,  parceque  je  n'y  ai  rien  trouve,  que  je  ne 
trouvasse  aussi  dans  I'ecriture."  It  is  doubtful  whether  Bossuet  had  really 
read  much  of  St.  Teresa.  Fenelon  says  much  more  cautiously,  "  Quelque 
respect  et  quelque  admiration  que  j'aie  pour  Sainte  Therese,  je  n'aurais 
jamais  voulu  donner  au  public  tout  ce  qu'elle  a  ecrit." 


244  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

neighbour."  ^  All  this  is  not  of  the  essence  of  Mysti- 
cism, but  belongs  to  mediaeval  Catholicism.  It  was 
probably  a  necessary  stage  through  which  Christianity, 
and  Mysticism  with  it,  had  to  pass.  The  vain  quest 
of  an  abstract  spirituality  at  any  rate  liberated  the 
religious  life  from  many  base  associations ;  the  "  negat- 
ive road "  is  after  all  the  holy  path  of  self-sacrifice ; 
and  the  maltreatment  of  the  body,  which  began  among 
the  hermits  of  the  Thebaid,  was  largely  based  on  an 
instinctive  recoil  against  the  poison  of  sensuality,  which 
had  helped  to  destroy  the  old  civilisation.  But  the 
resuscitation  of  mediaeval  Mysticism  after  the  Renais- 
sance was  an  anachronism  ;  and  except  in  the  fighting 
days  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  was  not  likely  to 
appeal  to  the  manliest  or  most  intelligent  spirits.  The 
world-ruling  papal  polity,  with  its  incomparable  army 
of  officials,  bound  to  poverty  and  celibacy,  and  therefore 
invulnerable,  was  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  its  world- 
renouncing  doctrines,  which  Europe  was  not  likely  to 
forget.  Introspective  Mysticism  had  done  its  work — 
a  work  of  great  service  to  the  human  race.  It  had 
explored  all  the  recesses  of  the  lonely  heart,  and  had 
wrestled  with  the  angel  of  God  through  the  terrors  of 
the  spiritual  night  even  till  the  morning.  "  Tell  me  now 
Thy  name "  ..."  I  will  not  let  Thee  go  until  Thou 
bless  me."  These  had  been  the  two  demands  of  the 
contemplative  mystic — the  only  rewards  which  his  soul 
craved  in  return  for  the  sacrifice  of  every  earthly  delight. 
The  reward  was  worth  the  sacrifice ;  but  "  God  reveals 
Himself  in  many  ways,"  and  the  spiritual  Christianity 

^  Of  course  there  is  a  sense  in  which  this  is  true  ;  but  I  am  speaking  of 
the  way  in  wliich  it  was  understood  by  medieval  Catholicism. 


PRACTICAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL       245 

of  the  modern  epoch  is  called  rather  to  the  consecration 
of  art,  science,  and  social  life  than  to  lonely  contempla- 
tion. In  my  last  two  Lectures  I  hope  to  show  how  an 
important  school  of  mystics,  chiefly  between  the  Renais- 
sance and  our  own  day,  have  turned  to  the  religious 
study  of  nature,  and  have  found  there  the  same  illumi- 
nation which  the  mediaeval  ascetics  drew  from  the  deep 
wells  of  their  inner  consciousness. 


LECTURE    VII 


'Ev  Traai  tois  (pvcriKOLS  ^uearl  n  dav[xa<XT6v   Ka66.irep  'IlpdK\eiTos  Xiyerai 
(liretv  elvat  /cat  ivravda  deovs. 

Aristotle,  de  Partibus  Animalium,  i.  $. 

"What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  each  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  ? " 

Milton. 

"  God  is  not  dumb,  that  He  should  speak  no  more. 
If  thou  hast  wanderings  in  the  wilderness, 
And  find'st  not  Sinai,  'tis  thy  soul  is  poor ; 
There  towers  the  mountain  of  the  voice  no  less. 
Which  whoso  seeks  shall  find ;  but  he  who  bends, 
Intent  on  manna  still  and  mortal  ends. 
Sees  it  not,  neither  hears  its  thundered  lore." 

Lowell. 


"Of  the  Absolute  in  the  theoretical  sense  I  do  not  venture  to  speak; 
but  this  I  maintain,  that  if  a  man  recognises  it  in  its  manifestations,  and 
always  keeps  his  eye  fixed  upon  it,  he  will  reap  a  very  great  reward." 

Goethe. 


LECTURE     VII 

Nature-Mysticism  and  Symbolism 

"  The  creation  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption 
into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God." — Rom.  viii.  21. 

It  would  be  possible  to  maintain  that  all  our  happiness 
consists  in  finding  sympathies  and  affinities  underlying 
apparent  antagonisms,  in  bringing  harmony  out  of 
discord,  and  order  out  of  chaos.  Even  the  lowest 
pleasures  owe  their  attractiveness  to  a  certain  tem- 
porary correspondence  between  our  desires  and  the 
nature  of  things.  Selfishness  itself,  the  prime  source 
of  sin,  misery,  and  ignorance,  cannot  sever  the  ties 
which  bind  us  to  each  other  and  to  nature ;  or  if  it 
succeeds  in  doing  so,  it  passes  into  madness,  of  which 
an  experienced  alienist  has  said,  that  its  essence  is 
"  concentrated  egoism."  Incidentally  I  may  say  that 
the  peculiar  happiness  which  accompanies  every  glimpse 
of  insight  into  truth  and  reality,  whether  in  the  scien- 
tific, aesthetic,  or  emotional  sphere,  seems  to  me  to 
have  a  greater  apologetic  value  than  has  been  generally 
recognised.  It  is  the  clearest  possible  indication  that 
the  true  is  for  us  the  good,  and  forms  the  ground  of  a 
reasonable  faith  that  all  things,  if  we  could  see  them  as 
they  are,  would  be  found  to  work  together  for  good  to 
those  who  love  God. 

249 


250  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

"  The  true  Mysticism,"  it  has  been  lately  said  with 
much  truth,  "  is  the  belief  that  everything,  in  being 
what  it  is,  is  symbolic  of  something  more."  ^  All 
Nature  (and  there  are  few  more  pernicious  errors  than 
that  which  separates  man  from  Nature)  is  the  language 
in  which  God  expresses  His  thoughts ;  but  the  thoughts 
are  far  more  than  the  language.^  Thus  it  is  that  the 
invisible  things  of  God  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
may  be  clearly  seen  and  understood  from  the  things 
that  are  made ;  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  equally 
true  that  here  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,  and 
know  only  in  part.  Nature  half  conceals  and  half 
reveals  the  Deity ;  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  it  may 
be  called  a  symbol  of  Him. 

The  word  "  symbol,"  like  several  other  words  which 
the  student  of  Mysticism  has  to  use,  has  an  ill-defined 
connotation,  which  produces  confusion  and  contradict- 
ory statements.  For  instance,  a  French  writer  gives 
as  his  definition  of  Mysticism  "  the  tendency  to  ap- 
proach the  Absolute,  morally,  by  means  of  symbols."  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  an  English  essayist  denies  that 
Mysticism  is  symbolic.^  Mysticism,  he  says,  differs 
from  symbolism  in  that,  while  symbolism  treats  the 
connexion    between  symbol    and    substance   as   some- 

^  In  R.  L.  Nettleship's  /Remains. 

-  In  addition  to  passages  quoted  elsewhere,  the  following  sentence  from 
Luthardt  is  a  good  statement  of  the  symbolic  theory  :  "  Nature  is  a  world 
of  symbolism,  a  rich  hieroglyphic  book  :  everything  visible  conceals  an 
invisible  mystery,  and  the  last  mystery  of  all  is  God."  Goethe's  "  Alles 
vergiingliche  ist  nur  ein  Gleichniss  "  would  be  better  without  the  "  nur," 
from  our  point  of  view. 

^  Recejac,  £ssai  sur  les  Fojidernents  de  la  Connaissance  Mystique. 

*  In  the  Edinburgh  Review,  October  1896.  The  article  referred  to,  on 
"The  Catholic  Mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  is  beautifully  written,  and 
should  be  read  by  all  who  are  interested  in  the  subject. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     251 

thing  accidental  or  subjective,  Mysticism   is  based  on 
a  positive  belief  in  the  existence  of  life  within  life,  of 
deep  correspondences  and  affinities,  not  less  real  than 
those  to  which  the  common  superficial  consciousness 
of  mankind    bears  witness.      I   agree  with  this   state- 
ment about   the  basis  of  Mysticism,  but   I   prefer   to 
use  the  word  symbol  of  that  which  has    a   real,  and 
not  merely  a  conventional  affinity  to  the  thing  sym- 
bolised.^      The    line    is   by    no   means   easy   to   draw. 
An    aureole    is    not,   properly    speaking,   a   symbol   of 
saintliness,^  nor  a  crown  of  royal    authority,  because 
in  these   instances   the    connexion    of   sign   with    sig- 
nificance is  conventional.     A  circle  is  perhaps  not  a 
symbol   of  eternity,   because   the   comparison   appeals 
only  to  the  intellect.      But  falling  leaves  are  a  symbol 
of  human  mortality,  a  flowing  river  of  the  "  stream  " 
of  life,  and  a  vine  and    its  branches  of  the  unity  of 
Christ   and   the   Church,   because   they   are   examples 
of  the  same  law  which  operates  through  all  that  God 
has  made.      And  when  the  Anglian  noble,  in  a  well- 
known    passage   of   Bede,   compares   the   life   of  man 
to  the  flight  of  a   bird  which  darts   quickly  through 
a   lighted   hall    out    of    darkness,   and    into    darkness 
again,  he  has  found  a  symbol  which  is  none  the  less 

^  This  is  Kant's  use  of  the  word.  See  Bosanquet,  Ilislory  of  Esthetic, 
p.  273  :  "  A  symbol  is  for  Kant  a  perception  or  presentation  which  repre- 
sents a  conception  neither  conventionally  as  a  mere  sign,  nor  directly,  but 
in  the  abstract,  as  a  scheme,  but  indirectly  though  appropriately  through  a 
similarity  between  the  rules  which  govern  our  reflection  in  the  symbol  and 
in  the  thing  (or  idea)  symbolised."  "  In  this  sense  beauty  is  a  symbol  of 
the  moral  order."  Goethe's  <lefinition  is  also  valuable:  "That  is  true 
symbolism  where  the  more  particular  represent.'-'  the  more  general,  not  as  a 
dream  or  shade,  but  as  a  vivid,  instantaneous' revelation  of  the  inscrutable." 

^  Or  rather  of  power  and  dignity ;  for  in  some  early  Byzantine  works 
even  Satan  is  represented  with  a_nimbus. 


252  .    CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

valid,  because  light  and  darkness  are  themselves  only 
symbolically  connected  with  life  and  death.  The 
writer  who  denies  that  Mysticism  is  symbolic,  means 
that  the  discovery  of  arbitrary  and  fanciful  resemblances 
or  types  is  no  part  of  healthy  Mysticism.^  In  this  he 
is  quite  right ;  and  the  importance  of  the  distinction 
which  he  wishes  to  emphasise  will,  I  hope,  become 
clear  as  we  proceed.  It  is  not  possible  always  to  say 
dogmatically,  "  This  is  genuine  Symbolism,  and  that 
is  morbid  or  fantastic " ;  but  we  do  assert  that  there 
is  a  true  and  a  false  Symbolism,  of  which  the  true 
is  not  merely  a  legitimate,  but  a  necessary  mode  of 
intuition  ;  while  the  latter  is  at  best  a  frivolous  amuse- 
ment, and  at  worst  a  degrading  superstition.^ 

But  we  shall  handle  our  subject  very  inadequately 
if  we  consider  only  the  symbolical  value  which  may 
be  attached  to  external  objects.  Our  thoughts  and 
beliefs  about  the  spiritual  world,  so  far  as  they  are 
conceived  under  forms,  or  expressed  in  language, 
which   belong   properly   only    to    things    of   time   and 

^Emerson  says  rightly,  "Mysticism  (in  a  bad  sense)  consists  in  the 
mistake  of  an  accidental  and  individual  symbol  for  an  universal  one." 

-  The  distinction  which  Ruskin  draws  between  the  fancy  and  the 
imagination  may  help  us  to  discern  the  true  and  the  false  in  Symbolism. 
*'  Fancy  has  to  do  with  the  outsides  of  things,  and  is  content  therewith. 
She  can  never /«<;/,  but  is  one  of  the  most  purely  and  simply  intellectual  of 
the  faculties.  She  cannot  be  made  serious ;  no  edge-tool,  but  she  will 
play  with  :  whereas  the  imagination  is  in  all  things  the  reverse.  She 
cannot  but  be  serious ;  she  sees  too  far,  too  darkly,  too  solemnly,  too 
earnestly,  ever  to  smile.  .  .  .  There  is  reciprocal  action  between  the 
intensity  of  moral  feeling  and  the  power  of  imagination.  Hence  the 
powers  of  the  imagination  may  always  be  tested  by  accompanying  tender- 
ness of  emotion.  .  .  .  Imagination  is  quiet,  fancy  restless  ;  fancy  details, 
imagination  suggests.  .  .  .  All  egotism  is  destructive  of  imagination, 
whose  play  and  power  depend  altogether  on  our  being  able  to  forget 
ourselves.  .  .  .  Imagination  has  no  respect  for  sayings  or  opinions  :  it 
is  independent"  {Modern  Painters,  vol.  ii.  chap.  iii.). 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     253 

space,  are  of  the  nature  of  symbols.  In  this  sense 
it  has  been  said  that  the  greater  part  of  dogmatic 
theology  is  the  dialectical  development  of  mystical 
symbols.  For  instance,  the  paternal  relation  of  the 
First  Person  of  the  Trinity  to  the  Second  is  a  symbol ; 
and  the  representation  of  eternity  as  an  endless  period 
of  time  stretching  into  futurity,  is  a  symbol.  We 
believe  that  the  forms  under  which  it  is  natural  and 
necessary  for  us  to  conceive  of  transcendental  truths 
have  a  real  and  vital  relation  to  the  ideas  which  they 
attempt  to  express  ;  but  their  inadequacy  is  manifest 
if  we  treat  them  as  facts  of  the  same  order  as  natural 
phenomena,  and  try  to  intercalate  them,  as  is  too 
often  done,  among  the  materials  with  which  an  abstract 
science  has  to  deal. 

The  two  great  sacraments  are  typical  symbols,  if 
we  use  the  word  in  the  sense  which  I  give  to  it,  as 
something  which,  in  being  what  it  is,  is  a  sign  and 
vehicle  of  something  higher  and  better.  This  is  what 
the  early  Church  meant  when  it  called  the  sacra- 
ments symbols.^  A  "  symbol  "  at  that  period  implied 
a  mystery,  and  a  "  mystery "  implied  a  revelation. 
The  need  of  sacraments  is  one    of  the   deepest   con- 

^  Cf.  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  ii.  p.  144:  "What  we  nowadays 
understand  by  '  symbols '  is  a  thing  which  is  not  that  which  it  represents  ; 
at  that  time  (in  the  second  century)  '  symbol '  denoted  a  thing  which,  in 
some  kind  of  way,  is  that  which  it  signifies ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
according  to  the  ideas  of  that  period,  the  really  heavenly  element  lay 
either  in  or  behind  the  visible  form  without  being  identical  with  it. 
Accordingly,  the  distinction  of  a  symbolic  and  realistic  conception  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  altogether  to  be  rejected."  And  vol.  iv.  p.  289:  "The 
'  symbol '  was  never  a  mere  type  or  sign,  but  always  embodied  a  mystery." 
So  Justin  Martyr  uses  cvix^o\ikCo%  eiTre'iv  and  direlv  iv  yui/UTT/ptCfj  as  inter- 
changeable terms ;  and  Tertullian  says  that  the  name  of  Joshua  was 
no/ninis  futiiri  sacramcnttim. 


254  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

victions  of  the  religious  consciousness.  It  rests  ulti- 
mately on  the  instinctive  reluctance  to  allow  any 
spiritual  fact  to  remain  without  an  external  expres- 
sion. It  is  obvious  that  all  morality  depends  on  the 
application  of  this  principle  to  conduct.  All  voluntary 
external  acts  are  symbolic  of  (that  is,  vitally  connected 
with)  internal  states,  and  cannot  be  divested  of  this 
their  essential  character.  It  may  be  impossible  to 
show  how  an  act  of  the  material  body  can  purify  or 
defile  the  immaterial  spirit ;  but  the  correspondence 
between  the  outward  and  inward  life  cannot  be  denied 
without  divesting  morality  of  all  meaning.  The 
maxim  of  Plotinus,  that  "  the  mind  can  do  no  wrong," 
when  transferred  from  his  transcendental  philosophy 
to  matters  of  conduct,  is  a  sophism  no  more  respect- 
able than  that  which  Euripides  puts  into  the  mouth 
of  one  of  his  characters :  "  The  tongue  hath  sworn  ; 
the  heart  remains  unsworn."  Every  act  of  the  will 
is  the  expression  of  a  state  of  the  soul ;  and  every 
state  of  the  soul  must  seek  to  find  expression  in  an 
act  of  the  will.  Love,  as  we  should  all  admit,  is  not 
love,  so  long  as  it  is  content  to  be  only  in  thought, 
or  "  in  word  and  in  tongue " ;  it  is  only  when  it  is 
love  "  in  deed "  that  it  is  love  "  in  truth."  ^  And  it 
is  the  same  with  all  other  virtues,  which  are  in  this 
sense    symbolic,  as    implying   something    beyond    the 

^  So  some  thinkers  have  felt  that  "  the  Word"  is  not  the  best  expression 
for  the  creative  activity  of  God.  The  passage  of  Goethe  where  Faust 
rejects  "Word,"  "Thought,"  and  "Power,"  and  finally  translates,  "In 
the  beginning  was  the  ^r/,"  is  well  known.  And  Thilo,  in  a  very 
interesting  passage,  says  that  Nature  is  the  language  in  which  God  speaks ; 
"but  there  is  this  difference,  that  while  the  human  voice  is  made  to  be 
heard,  the  voice  of  God  is  made  to  be  seen  :  what  God  says  consists  of  acts, 
not  of  words"  ^De  Decern  Ornc.  Ii), 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     255 

external    act.       Nearly   all    the   states    or    motions   of 
the    soul    can    find    their    appropriate    expression    in 
action.      Charity  in  its  manifold  forms  need  not  seek 
long  for  an  object ;    and    thankfulness  and  penitence, 
though    they  drive   us    first   to   silent   prayer,  are  not 
satisfied    till    they   have    borne    fruit    in    some   act   of 
gratitude    or    humility.       But    that    deepest    sense    of 
communion    with    God,    which    is    the    very    heart    of 
religion,   is    in    danger   of  being   shut   up   in   thought 
and    word,  which    are   inadequate  expressions  of  any 
spiritual   state.      No   doubt   this   highest   state  of  the 
soul  may  find  indirect  expression  in  good  works ;  but 
these  fail  to  express  the  immediacy  of  the  communion 
which    the   soul   has    felt.      The    want   of   symbols    to 
express   these    highest   states  of  the   soul    is   supplied 
by  sacraments.      A   sacrament  is  a  symbolic  act,  not 
arbitrarily   chosen,   but    resting,    to    the    mind    of   the 
recipient,  on   Divine  authority,  which  has   no  ulterior 
object  except  to  give  expression  to,  and  in  so  doing 
to  effectuate,^  a  relation  which  is  too  purely  spiritual 
to    find  utterance  in   the  customary   activities   of  life. 
There  are  three  requisites  (on  the  human  side)  for  the 
validity  of  a  sacramental  act.      The  symbol  must  be 
appropriate ;  the  thing  symbolised  must  be  a  spiritual 
truth ;  and    there    must    be    the    intention    to   perform 
the  act  as  a  sacrament. 

The  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the   Lord's  Supper 

^Aquinas  says  of  the  sacraments,  "efficiunt  quod  figurant."  The 
Thomists  held  that  the  sacraments  are  "causos"  of  grace;  the  Scotists 
(NominaHsts),  that  grace  is  their  inseparable  concomitant.  The  mainten- 
ance of  a  real  correspondence  between  sign  and  significance  seems  to  be 
essential  to  the  idea  of  a  sacrament,  but  then  the  danger  of  degrading  it  , 
into  magic  lies  close  at  hand. 


256  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

fulfil  these  conditions.  Both  are  symbols  of  the  mystical 
union  between  the  Christian  and  his  ascended  Lord. 
Baptism  symbolises  that  union  in  its  inception,  the 
Eucharist  in  its  organic  life.  Baptism  is  received  but 
once,  because  the  death  unto  sin  and  the  new  birth 
unto  righteousness  is  a  definite  entrance  into  the 
spiritual  life,  rather  than  a  gradual  process.  The  fact 
that  in  Christian  countries  Baptism  in  most  cases 
precedes  conversion  does  not  alter  the  character  of 
the  sacrament ;  indeed,  infant  Baptism  is  by  far  the 
most  appropriate  symbol  of  our  adoption  into  the 
Divine  Sonship,  to  which  we  only  consent  after  the 
event.  It  is  only  because  we  are  already  sons  that  we 
can  say,  "  I  will  arise,  and  go  unto  my  Father."  The 
Holy  Communion  is  the  symbol  of  the  maintenance 
of  the  mystical  union,  and  of  the  "  strengthening  and 
refreshing  of  our  souls,"  which  we  derive  from  the 
indwelling  presence  of  our  Lord.  The  Church  claims 
an  absolute  prerogative  for  its  duly  ordained  ministers 
in  the  case  of  this  sacrament,  because  the  common 
meal  is  the  symbol  of  the  organic  unity  of  Christ  and 
the  Church  as  "  unus  Christus,"  a  doctrine  which  the 
schismatic,  as  such,  denies.^  The  communicant  who 
believes  only  in  an  individual  relation  betwen  Christ  and 
separate  persons,  or  in  an  "  invisible  Church,"  does  not 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  can  hardly  be  said  to  participate  in  it. 

There  are  two  views   of  this   sacrament  which  the 
"  plain  man  "  has  always  found  much  easier  to  under- 

1  In  the  case  of  irregular  Baptism,  the  maxim  holds  :  "  Fieri  non  debuit ; 
factum  valet."  Cf.  Bp.  Churton,  The  Missionm-y'  s  Foundation  of  Doctrine, 
p.  129.  The  reason  for  this  difference  between  the  two  sacraments  is 
quite  clear. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     257 

stand  than  the  symboUc  view  which  is  that  of  our  Church. 
One  is  that  it  is  a  miracle  or  magical  performance, 
the  other  is  that  it  is  a  mere  commemoration.  Both 
are  absolutely  destructive  of  the  idea  of  a  sacrament. 
The  latter  view,  that  of  some  Protestant  sects,  was 
quite  foreign  to  the  early  Church,  so  far  as  our 
eyidence  goes ;  the  former,  it  is  only  just  to  say,  is 
found  in  many  of  the  Fathers,  not  in  the  grossly 
materialistic  form  which  it  afterwards  assumed,  but 
in  such  phrases  as  "  the  medicine  of  immortality " 
applied  to  the  consecrated  elements,  where  we  are 
meant  to  understand  that  the  elements  have  a  mys- 
terious power  of  preserving  the  receiver  from  the 
natural  consequences  of  death.^  But  when  we  find 
that  the  same  writers  who  use  compromising  phrases 
about  the  change  that  comes  over  the  elements,^  also 
use   the   language   of  symbolism,  and   remember,  too, 

^  It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  decide  how  far  such  statements  were  meant 
to  be  taken  literally.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  both  Baptism  and  the 
Eucharist  were  supposed  to  cottfer  immortality.  Cf.  Tert.  de  Bapt.  2  (621, 
Oehl. ),  "nonne  mirandum  est  lavacro  dilui  mortem?"  ;  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
Or.  cat.  niagn.  35,  IM)  Swac^at  5^  ^'JA't  ^'x**  ■'"'J'  ko-to.  rh  Xovrpbv  ivayev- 
PTiaeus  iv  dvaa-rdaei  yeviadai  rhv  B-vOpuirov.  Basil,  too,  calls  Baptism 
dfjva/Ms  els  TT]v  avdaracnv.  Of  the  Eucharist,  Ignatius  uses  the  phrase 
quoted,  (papfiaKov  ttjs  adavaala,^,  and  olvtISotos  rod  firj  aTTodaveiv  ;  and 
Gregory  of  Nyssa  uses  the  same  language  as  about  Baptism.  See,  further, 
in  Appendices  B  and  C. 

-  E.g.  fierdWa^is  (Theodoret),  ixera^oXr]  (Cyril),  fieTaTrolrjcns  (Gregor}- 
Naz.),  yuerao-rotxe^wcriy  (Theophylact).  The  last-named  goes  on  to  say  that 
"we  are  in  the  same  way  transelementatid'wiiQ  Christ."  The  Christian 
Neoplatonists  naturally  regard  the  sacrament  as  symbolic.  Origen  is 
inclined  to  hold  that  every  action  should  be  sacramental,  and  that  material 
symbols,  such  as  bread  and  wine,  and  participation  in  a  ceremonial,  cannot 
be  necessary  vehicles  of  spiritual  grace  ;  this  is  in  accordance  with  the 
excessive  idealism  and  intellectualism  of  his  system.  Dionysius  calls  the 
elements  (jiy-^oKa.,  eUdves,  dvTlrvwa,  aladryrd  nva  dvTl  votjtQv  fxeroKafi- 
Pav6fieva  ;  and  Maximus,  his  commentator,  defines  a  symbol  as  alaOrjrdv  rt 
dfrl  voTjToO  neTaXafi^avd/xevov. 


258  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

that  a  "  miracle "  was  a  very  different  thing  to  those 
who  knew  of  no  inflexible  laws  in  the  natural  world 
from  what  it  is  to  us,  we  shall  not  be  ready  to 
agree  with  those  who  have  accused  the  third  and 
fourth  century  Fathers  of  degrading  the  Lord's  Supper 
into  a  magical  ceremony. 

Most  of  the  errors  which  have  so  grievously  obscured 
the  true  nature  of  this  sacrament  have  proceeded  from 
attempts  to  answer  the  question,  "  How  does  the 
reception  of  the  consecrated  elements  affect  the  inner 
state  of  the  receiver  ? "  To  those  who  hold  the 
symbolic  view,  as  I  understand  it,  it  seems  clear  that 
the  question  of  cause  and  effect  must  be  resolutely 
cast  aside.  The  reciprocal  action  of  spirit  and  matter 
is  the  one  great  mystery  which,  to  all  appearance, 
must  remain  impenetrable  to  the  finite  intelligence. 
We  do  not  ask  whether  the  soul  is  the  cause  of  the 
body,  or  the  body  of  the  soul ;  we  only  know  that  the 
two  are  found,  in  experience,  always  united.  In  the 
same  way  we  should  abstain,  I  think,  from  speculating 
on  the  effect  of  the  sacraments,  and  train  ourselves 
instead  to  consider  them  as  divinely-ordered  symbols, 
by  which  the  Church,  as  an  organic  whole,  and  we  as 
members  of  it,  realise  the  highest  and  deepest  of  our 
spiritual  privileges. 

There  are  other  religious  forms  for  which  no  Divine 
institution  is  claimed,  but  which  have  a  quasi-sacra- 
mental value.  And  those  who,  "  whether  they  eat,  or 
drink,  or  whatever  they  do,"  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God, 
may  be  said  to  turn  the  commonest  acts  into  sacra- 
ments. To  the  true  mystic,  life  itself  is  a  sacrament. 
It  is  natural,  but  unfortunate,  that  sorne  of  those  who 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     259 

have  felt  this  most  strongly  have  shown  a  tendency  to 
disparage  observances  which  are  simply  acts  of  devo- 
tion, "  mere  forms,"  as  they  call  them.  The  attempt 
to  distinguish  between  conventional  ceremonies,  which 
have  no  essential  connexion  with  the  truth  symbolised, 
and  actions  which  are  in  themselves  moral  or  immoral, 
is  no  doubt  justifiable,  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  this  is  the  way  in  which  antinomianism  takes  its 
rise.  Many  have  begun  by  saying,  "  The  heart,  the 
motive,  is  all,  the  external  act  nothing ;  the  spirit  is 
all,  the  letter  nothing.  What  can  it  matter  whether  I 
say  my  prayers  in  church  or  at  home,  on  my  knees  or 
in  bed,  in  words  or  in  thought  only  ?  What  can  it 
matter  whether  the  Eucharistic  bread  and  wine  are 
consecrated  or  not  ?  whether  I  actually  eat  and  drink 
or  not  ? "  And  so  on.  The  descent  to  Avernus  is 
easy  by  this  road.  Perhaps  no  sect  that  has  pro- 
fessed contempt  for  all  ceremonial  forms  has  escaped 
at  least  the  imputation  of  scandalous  licentiousness, 
with  the  honourable  exception  of  the  Quakers.  The 
truth  is  that  the  need  of  symbols  to  express  or  repre- 
sent our  highest  emotions  is  inwoven  with  human 
nature,  and  indifference  to  them  is  not,  as  many  have 
supposed,  a  sign  of  enlightenment  or  of  spirituality.  It 
is,  in  fact,  an  unhealthy  symptom.  We  do  not  credit 
a  man  with  a  warm  heart  who  does  not  care  to  show 
his  love  in  word  and  act ;  nor  should  we  commend  the 
common  sense  of  a  soldier  who  saw  in  his  regimental 
colours  only  a  rag  at  the  end  of  a  pole.  It  is  one  of 
the  points  in  which  we  must  be  content  to  be  children, 
and  should  be  thankful  that  wc  may  remain  children 
with  a  clear  conscience, 


26o  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

I  do  not  shrink  from  expressing  my  conviction  that 
the  true  meaning  of  our  sacramental  system,  which  in 
its  external  forms  is  so  strangely  anticipated  by  the 
Greek  mysteries,  and  in  its  inward  significance  strikes 
down  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  mystical 
Christianity,  can  only  be  understood  by  those  who  are 
in  some  sympathy  with  Mysticism.  But  it  has  not 
been  possible  to  say  much  about  the  sacraments  sooner 
than  this  late  stage  of  our  inquiry.  We  have  hitherto 
been  dealing  with  the  subjective  or  introspective  type 
of  Mysticism,  and  it  is  plain  that  this  form,  when 
carried  to  its  logical  conclusion,  is  inconsistent  with 
sacramental  religion.^  Those  who  seek  to  ascend  to 
God  by  the  way  of  abstraction,  the  negative  road, 
must  regard  all  symbols  as  veils  between  our  eyes  and 
reality,  and  must  wish  to  get  rid  of  them  as  soon  as 
possible.  From  this  point  of  view,  sacraments,  like 
other  ceremonial  forms,  can  only  be  useful  at  a  very 
early  stage  in  the  upward  path,  which  leads  us 
ultimately  into  a  Divine  darkness,  where  no  forms 
can  be  distinguished.  It  is  true  that  some  devout 
mystics  of  this  type  have  both  observed  and  exacted  a 
punctilious  strictness  in  using  all  the  appointed  means 
of  grace ;  but  this  inconsistency  is  easily  accounted 
for.^     The  pressure  of  authority,  loyalty  to  the  estab- 

^  liarnack  {History  of  Dogma,  vol.  vi.  p.  102,  English  edition)  says : 
"  In  the  centuries  before  the  Reformation,  a  growing  value  was  attached 
not  only  to  the  sacraments,  but  to  crosses,  amulets,  relics,  holy  places,  etc. 
As  long  as  what  the  soul  seeks  is  not  the  rock  of  assurance,  but  means  for 
inciting  to  piety,  it  will  create  for  itself  a  thousand  holy  things.  It  is 
therefore  an  extremely  superficial  view  that  regards  the  most  inward 
Mysticism  and  the  service  of  idols  as  contradictory.  The  opposite  view, 
rather,  is  correct."  I  have  seldom  found  myself  able  to  agree  with  this 
svriter's  judgments  upon  Mysticism  ;  and  this  one  is  no  exception.     The 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     261 

lished  order,  and  human  nature,  which  is  stronger  than 
either,  has  prevented  them  from  casting  away  the 
time-honoured  symbols  and  vehicles  of  Divine  love. 
But  a  true  appreciation  of  sacraments  belongs  only 
to  those  who  can  sympathise  with  the  other  branch  of 
Mysticism — that  which  rests  on  belief  in  symbolism.  To 
this  branch  of  my  subject  I  now  invite  your  attention. 

If  we  expect  to  find  ourselves  at  once  in  a  larger 
air  when  we  have  taken  leave  of  the  monkish 
mystics,  we  shall  be  disappointed.  The  objective  or 
symbolical  type  of  Mysticism  is  liable  to  quite  as 
many  perversions  as  the  subjective.  If  in  the  latter 
we  found  a  tendency  to  revert  to  the  apathy  of  the 
Indian  Yogi,  we  shall  observe  in  the  former  too  many 
survivals  of  still  more  barbarous  creeds.  Indeed,  I 
feel  that  it  is  almost  necessary,  as  an  introduction  to 
this  part  of  my  subject,  to  consider  very  briefly  the 
stages  through  which  the  religious  consciousness  of 
mankind  has  passed  in  its  attempts  to  realise  Divine 
immanence  in  Nature,  for  this  is,  of  course,  the  founda- 
tion of  all  religious  symbolism. 

"most  inward  Myslicism "'  does  not  occupy  itself  much  with  external 
"incitements  to  piety,"  nor  is  this  the  motive  with  which  a  mystic  could 
ever  {e.j^.)  receive  the  Eucharist.  The  use  of  amulets,  etc.,  which  Harnack 
finds  to  have  been  spreading  before  the  Reformation,  and  which  was 
certainly  very  prevalent  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
had  very  little  to  do  with  "the  most  inward  Mysticism."  My 
view  as  to  the  place  of  magic  in  the  history  of  Mysticism  is  given  in 
this  Lecture  ;  I  protest  against  identifying  it  with  the  essence  of  Mysticism. 
Symbolic  Mysticism  soon  outgrew  it ;  introspective  Mysticism  never  valued 
it.  The  use  of  visible  things  as  stimulants  to  piety  is  another  matter ; 
it  has  its  place  in  the  systems  of  the  Catholic  mystics,  but  as  a  very 
early  stage  in  the  spiritual  ascent.  What  I  have  said  as  to  the  inconsistency 
of  a  high  sacramental  doctrine  with  the  favourite  injunctions  to  "cast 
away  all  images,"  which  we  find  in  the  mediceval  mystics,  is,  1  think, 
indisputable.  ' 


262  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

The  earliest  belief  seems  to  be  that  which  has  been 
called  Animism,  the  belief  that  all  natural  forces  are 
conscious  living  beings  like  ourselves.  This  is  the 
primitive  form  of  natural  religion ;  and  though  it  leads 
to  some  deplorable  customs,  it  is  not  a  morbid  type,  but 
a  very  early  effort  on  the  lines  of  true  development.^ 

The  perverted  form  of  primitive  Animism  is  called 
Fetishism,  which  is  the  belief  that  supernatural  powers 
reside  in  some  visible  object,  which  is  the  home  or 
most  treasured  possession  of  a  god  or  demon.  The 
object  may  be  a  building,  a  tree,  an  animal,  a  particu- 
lar kind  of  food,  or  indeed  anything.  Unfortunately 
this  belief  is  not  peculiar  to  savages.  A  degraded 
form  of  it  is  exhibited  by  the  so-called  neo-mystical 
school  of  modern  France,  and  in  the  baser  types  of 
Roman  Catholicism  everywhere.- 

Primitive  Animism  believes  in  no  natural  laws.  The 
next  stage  is  to  believe  in  laws  which  are  frequently 
suspended  by  the  intervention  of  an  independent  and 
superior  power.  Mediaeval  dualism  regarded  every 
breach  of  natural  law  as  a  vindication  of  the  power 

'  The  most  recent  developments  of  German  idealistic  philosophy,  as  set 
fonh  in  the  cosmology  of  Lotze,  and  still  more  of  Fechner,  may  perhaps  be 
described  as  an  attempt  to  preserve  the  truth  of  Animism  on  a  much  higher 
plane,  without  repudiating  the  universality  of  law. 

-  I  refer  especially  to  Iluysmans'  two  "mystical"  novels,  En  Route  and 
•  La  Cathedrale.  The  naked  Fetishism  of  the  latter  book  almost  passes 
belief.  We  have  a  Madonna  who  is  good-natured  at  Lourdes  and  cross- 
grained  at  La  Salette  ;  who  likes  "  pretty  speeches  and  little  coaxing  ways" 
in  "paying  court"  to  her,  and  who  at  the  end  is  apostrophised  as  "our 
Lady  of  the  Pillar,"  "our  Lady  of  the  Crypt."  It  may  perhaps  be 
excusable  to  resort  to  such  expedients  as  these  in  the  conversion  of  savages  ; 
but  there  is  something  singularly  repulsive  in  the  picture  (drawn  apparently 
from  life)  of  a  profligate  man  of  letters  seeking  salvation  in  a  Christianity 
which  has  lowered  itself  far  beneath  educated  paganism.  At  any  rate,  let 
not  the  name  of  .Mysticism  be  given  to  such  methods. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLIS]\I     263 

of  spirit  over  matter — not  always,  however,  of  Divine 
power,  for  evil  spirits  could  produce  very  similar  dis- 
turbances of  the  physical  order.  Thus  arose  that 
persistent  tendency  to  "  seek  after  a  sign,"  in  which 
the  religion  of  the  vulgar,  even  in  our  own  day,  is 
deeply  involved.  Miracle,  in  some  form  or  other,  is 
regarded  as  the  real  basis  of  belief  in  God.  At  this 
stage  people  never  ask  themselves  whether  any  spiritual 
truth,  or  indeed  anything  worth  knowing,  could  possibly 
be  communicated  or  authenticated  by  thaumaturgic 
exhibitions.  What  attracts  them  at  first  is  the  evi- 
dence which  these  beliefs  furnish,  that  the  world  in  which 
they  live  is  not  entirely  under  the  dominion  of  an  uncon- 
scious or  inflexible  power,  but  that  behind  the  iron 
mechanism  of  cause  and  effect  is  a  will  more  like  their 
own  in  its  irregularity  and  arbitrariness.  Afterwards, 
as  the  majesty  of  law  dawns  upon  them,  miracles  are 
no  longer  regarded  as  capricious  exercises  of  power, 
but  as  the  operation  of  higher  physical  laws,  which  are 
only  active  on  rare  occasions.  A  truer  view  sees  in 
them  a  materialisation  of  mystical  symbols,  the  proper 
function  of  which  is  to  act  as  interpreters  between  the 
real  and  the  apparent,  between  the  spiritual  and 
material  worlds.  When  they  crystallise  as  portents, 
they  lose  all  their  usefulness.  Moreover,  the  belief  in 
celestial  visitations  has  its  dark  counterpart  in  super- 
stitious dread  of  the  powers  of  evil,  which  is  capable  of 
turning  life  into  a  long  nightmare,  and  has  led  to 
dreadful  cruelties.^      The  error  has  still  enough  vitality 

'  I  refer  especially  to  the  horrors  connected  with  the  belief  in  witchcraft, 
on  which  see  Lecky,  Rationalism  in  Europe,  vol.  i.  "  Remy,  a  judge  of 
Nancy,  boasted  that  he  had  put  to  death  eight  hundred  witches  in  sixteen 


264  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

to  create  a  prejudice  against  natural  science,  which 
appears  in  the  light  of  an  invading  enemy  wresting 
province  after  province  from  the  empire  of  the  super- 
natural. 

But  we  are  concerned  with  thaumaturgy  only  so  far 
as  it  has  affected  Mysticism.  At  first  sight  the  con- 
nexion may  seem  very  slight ;  and  slight  indeed  it  is. 
But  just  as  Mysticism  of  the  subjective  type  is  often 
entangled  in  theories  which  sublimate  matter  till  only 
a  vain  shadow  remains,  so  objective  Mysticism  has 
been  often  pervaded  by  another  kind  of  false  spiritual- 
ism— that  which  finds  edification  in  palpable  super- 
natural manifestations.  These  so-called  "  mystical 
phenomena  "  are  so  much  identified  with  "  Mysticism  " 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  to-day,  that  the 
standard  treatises  on  the  subject,  now  studied  in 
continental  universities,  largely  consist  of  grotesque 
legends  of  "  levitation,"  "  bilocation,"  "  incandescence," 
"  radiation,"  and  other  miraculous  tokens  of  Divine 
favour.^      The  great  work  of  Gorres,  in  five  volumes,  is 

years."  "  In  the  bishopric  of  Warlzburg,  nine  hundred  were  burnt  in  one 
year."  As  late  as  1850,  some  French  peasants  burnt  alive  a  woman 
named  Bedouret,  whom  they  supposed  to  be  a  witch. 

^  The  degradation  of  Mysticism  in  the  Roman  Church  since  the  Reforma- 
tion may  be  estimated  by  comparing  the  definitions  of  Mysticism  and 
Mystical  Theology  current  in  the  Middle  Ages  with  the  following  from 
Ribet,  who  is  recognised  as  a  standard  authority  on  the  subject:  "La 
Theologie  mystique,  au  point  de  vue  subjectif  et  experimental,  nous 
semble  pouvoir  etre  definie ;  une  attraction  surnaturelle  et  passive  de 
I'ame  vers  Dieu,  provenant  d'une  illumination  et  d'un  embrasement 
interieurs,  qui  previennent  la  reflexion,  surpassent  I'effort  humain,  et 
peiivent  avoir  sur  le  corps  tin  reteyttissenient  merveilletix  et  irresistible.^^ 
"Au  point  de  vue  doctrinal  et  objectif,  la  mystique  peut  se  d^finir :  la 
science  qui  traite  des  phenomenes  sitmatji7-e!s,  soit  intimes,  soit  exterieurs, 
qui  preparent,  accompagnent,  et  suivent  la  contemplation  divine."  The 
time  is  past,  if  it  ever  existed,  when  such  superstitions  could  be  believed 
without  grave  injury  to  mental  and  moral  health. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     265 

divided  into  Divine,  Natural,  and  Diabolical  Mysticism. 
The  first  contains  stories  of  the  miraculous  enhance- 
ment of  sight,  hearing,  smell,  and  so  forth,  which  results 
from  extreme  holiness  ;  and  tells  us  how  one  saint  had 
the  power  of  becoming  invisible,  another  of  walking 
through  closed  doors,  and  a  third  of  flying  through 
the  air.  "  Natural  Mysticism  "  deals  with  divination, 
lycanthropy,  vampires,  second  sight,  and  other  barbar- 
ous superstitions.  "  Diabolical  Mysticism  "  includes 
witchcraft,  diabolical  possession,  and  the  hideous  stories 
of  incubi  and  succubse.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  say 
any  more  about  these  savage  survivals,  as  I  do  not  wish 
to  bring  my  subject  into  undeserved  contempt.^  "  These 
terrors,  and  this  darkness  of  the  mind,"  as  Lucretius 
says,  "  must  be  dispelled,  not  by  the  bright  shafts  of 
the  sun's  light,  but  by  the  study  of  Nature's  laws."  - 

1  This  language  about  the  teaching  of  the  Roman  Church  may  be  con- 
sidered unseemly  by  those  who  have  not  studied  the  subject.  Those  who 
have  done  so  will  think  it  hardly  strong  enough.  In  self-defence,  I  will 
quote  one  sentence  from  Schram,  whose  work  on  "Mysticism"  is  con- 
sidered authoritative,  and  is  studied  in  the  great  Catholic  university  of 
Louvain :  "Qureri  potest  utrum  dcemon  per  turpem  concubitum  possit 
violenter  opprimere  marem  vel  feminam  cuius  obsessio  permissa  sit  ob 
finem  perfectionis  et  contemplationis  acquirendse."  The  answer  is  in  the 
affirmative,  and  the  evidence  is  such  as  could  hardly  be  transcribed,  even 
in  Latin.  Schram's  book  is  mainly  intended  for  the  direction  of  confessing 
priests,  and  the  evidence  shows,  as  might  have  been  expected,  that  the 
subjects  of  these  "phenomena"  are  generally  poor  nuns  suffering  from 
hysteria. 

-  At  a  time  when  many  are  hoping  to  find  in  the  study  of  the  obscurer 
psychical  phenomena  a  breach  in  the  "middle  wall  of  partition"  between 
the  spiritual  and  material  worlds,  I  may  seem  to  have  brushed  aside  too 
contemptuously  the  floating  mass  of  popular  beliefs  which  "spiritualists" 
think  worthy  of  serious  investigation.  I  must  therefore  be  allowed  to  say 
that  in  my  opinion  psychical  research  has  already  established  results  of 
great  value,  especially  in  helping  to  break  down  that  view  of  the  irupervi- 
onsness  of  the  ego  which  is  fatal  to  Mysticism,  and  (I  venture  to  think)  to 
any  consistent  philosophy.     Monadism,  we  may  hope,   is  doomed.     But 


266  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Some  of  these  fables  are  quite  obviously  due  to  a 
materialisation  of  conventional  symbols.  These  sym- 
bols are  the  picture  language  into  which  the  imagination 
translates  what  the  soul  has  felt.  A  typical  case  is 
that  of  the  miniature  image  of  Christ,  which  is  said  to 
have  been  found  embedded  in  the  heart  of  a  deceased 
saint.  The  supposed  miracle  was,  of  course,  the  work 
of  imagination ;  but  this  does  not  mean  that  those  who 
reported  it  were  deliberate  liars.  We  know  now  that 
we  must  distinguish  between  observation  an^  imagina- 
tion, between  the  language  of  science  and  that  of 
poetical  metaphor ;  but  in  an  age  which  abhorred 
rationalism  this  was  not  so  clear.^  Rationalism  has 
its  function  in  proving  that  such  mystical  symbols  are 
not  physical  facts.  But  when  it  goes  on  to  say  that 
they  are  related  to  physical  facts  as  morbid  hallucina- 
tions to  realities,  it  has  stepped  outside  its  province. 

Proceeding  a  little  further  as  we  trace  the  develop- 
ment of  natural  or  objective  religion,  we  come  to  the 
belief  in  magic,  which  in  primitive  peoples  is  closely 
associated  with  their  first  attempts  at  experimental 
science.  What  gives  magic  its  peculiar  character  is 
that  it  is  based  on  fanciful,  and  not  on  real  corre- 
spondences. The  uneducated  mind  cannot  distinguish 
between  associations  of  ideas  which  are  purely  arbitrary 

n  the  more  popular  kind  of  spiritualism  is  simply  the  old  hankering  after 
,   supernatural    manifestations,    which   are   always    dear    to    semi-regenerate 
minds. 

'  It  is,  I  tliink,  signilicant  that  the  word  "imagination"  was  slow  in 
making  its  way  into  psychology.  •ta/'Tacria  is  defined  by  Aristotle  (de 
Amma,  iii.  3)  as  fclfTja-is  inrb  ttjs  aicrOrjcreus  t^s  icar  ivipryeiav  yiyvo/j-ivyj,  but 
it  is  not  till  Philostratus  that  the  creative  imagination  is  opposed  to  ix[in]<ns. 
Cf.  Vif.  Apoll.  vi.  19,  filfXTjaLS  fxii>  o-ijjMoi'pyriaei  6  elSev,  ^ai'racrla  di  Kal  <S 
fj-r)  doev. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     267 

and  subjective,  and  those  which  have  a  more  universal 
validity.  Not,  of  course,  that  all  the  affinities  seized 
upon  by  primitive  man  proved  illusory ;  but  those 
which  were  not  so  ceased  to  be  magical,  and  became 
scientific.  The  savage  draws  no  distinction  between 
the  process  by  which  he  makes  fire  and  that  by  which 
his  priest  calls  down  rain,  except  that  the  latter  is  a 
professional  secret ;  drugs  and  spells  are  used  indiffer- 
ently to  cure  the  sick ;  astronomy  and  astrology  are 
parts  of  the  same  science.  There  is,  however,  a 
difference  between  the  magic  which  is  purely  natural- 
istic and  that  which  makes  mystical  claims.  The 
magician  sometimes  claims  that  the  spirits  are  subject 
to  him,  not  because  he  has  learned  how  to  wield  the 
forces  which  they  must  obey,  but  because  he  has  so 
purged  his  higher  faculties  that  the  occult  sympathies 
of  nature  have  become  apparent  to  him.  His  theosophy 
claims  to  be  a  spiritual  illumination,  not  a  scientific 
discovery.  The  error  here  is  the  application  of 
spiritual  clairvoyance  to  physical  relations.  The 
insight  into  reality,  which  is  unquestionably  the  reward 
of  the  pure  heart  and  the  single  eye,  does  not  reveal  to 
us  in  detail  how  nature  should  be  subdued  to  our  needs. 
No  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep  will  obey  our  call,  to 
show  us  where  lies  the  road  to  fortune  or  to  ruin. 
Physical  science  is  an  abstract  inquiry,  which,  while 
it  keeps  to  its  proper  subject — the  investigation  of  the 
relations  which  prevail  in  the  phenomenal  world — is  self- 
sufficient,  and  can  receive  nothing  on  external  authority. 
Still  less  can  the  adept  usurp  Divine  powers,  and  bend 
the  eternal  laws  of  the  universe  to  his  puny  will. 

The    turbid    streams   of  theurgy  and    magic   flowed 


268  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

into    the    broad    river    of   Christian    thought   by   two 
channels — the  later  Neoplatonism,  and  Jewish  Cabbal- 
ism.      Of  the   former  something  has  been  said  already. 
The  root-idea  of  the  system  was  that  all   life   may  be 
arranged  in  a  descending  scale   of  potencies,  forming  a 
kind    of   chain    from    heaven    to    earth.      Man,    as    a 
microcosm,  is   in  contact  with  every  link  in  the  chain, 
and   can   establish   relations  with   all   spiritual   powers, 
from    the   superessential   One   to    the    lower   spirits  or 
"  daemons."      The  philosopher-saint,  who  had  explored 
the  highest   regions   of  the  intelligence,  might  hope  to 
dominate  the  spirits  of  the  air,  and  compel  them  to  do 
his   bidding.      Thus   the  door   was   thrown   wide  open 
for  every  kind  of  superstition.      The  Cabbalists  followed 
much  the  same  path.      The  word  Cabbala  means  "  oral 
tradition,"  and  is  defined  by  Reuchlin  as  "  the  symbolic 
reception   of  a   Divine  revelation  handed  down  for  the 
saving   contemplation    of  God   and    separate    forms."  ^ 
In  another  place  he  says,  "  The  Cabbala  is  nothing  else 
than  symbolic  theology,  in  which  not  only  are  letters 
and  words  symbols  of  things,  but  things  are  symbols  of 
other  things."     This  method  of  symbolic  interpretation 
was   held    to   have   been   originally   communicated  by 
revelation,-  in  order   that   persons    of  holy  life    might 

'  Reuchlin,  Dc  arte  cabbalistica :  "  Est  enim  Cabbala  divince  revclationis 
ad  salutiferam  Dei  et  formarum  separatarum  contemplationem  traditre 
symbolica  receptio,  quam  qui  coelesti  sortiuntur  afflatu  recto  nomine 
Cabbalici  dicuntur,  eorum  vero  discipulos  cognomento  Cabbala?os 
appellabimus,  et  qui  alioquin  eos  imitari  conantur,  Cabbalistce  nominandi 
sunt." 

-  The  mystical  Rabbis  ascribe  tlie  Cabbala  to  the  angel  Razael,  the 
reputed  teacher  of  Adam  in  Paradise,  and  say  that  this  angel  gave  Adam 
the  Cabbala  as  his  lesson-book.  There  is  a  clear  and  succinct  account  of 
tlie  main  Cabbalistic  docrines  in  Hunt,  Fautheism  and  Christianity, 
pp.  84-88. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     269 

by  it  attain  to  a  mystical  communion  with  God,  or 
deification.  The  Cabbalists  thus  held  much  the  same 
relation  to  the  Talmudists  as  the  mystics  to  the 
scholastics  in  the  twelfth  century.  But,  as  Jews,  they 
remained  faithful  to  the  two  doctrines  of  an  inspired 
tradition  and  an  inspired  book,  which  distinguish  them 
from  Platonic  mystics.^ 

Pico  de  Mirandola  (born  1463)  was  the  first  to  bring 
the  Cabbala  into  Christian  philosophy,  and  to  unite  it 
with  his  Neoplatonism.  Very  characteristic  of  his  age 
is  the  declaration  that  "  there  is  no  natural  science 
which  makes  us  so  certain  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ  as 
Magic    and    the   Cabbala."-      For    there    was    at    that 

'  But  the  notion  that  the  deepest  mysteries  should  not  be  entrusted  to 
writing  is  found  in  Clement  and  Origen  ;  cf.  Origen,  Against  Cehus,  vi.  26  : 
ovK  6.kIv8wov  tt]v  tQiv  TOLOirrwy  ffacp-fjveLav  irLaTevaai,  ypatpfj.  And  Clement 
says :  ra.  anbppriTa,  KaOdirep  6  debi,  Xdyip  TrtareveTai  ov  ypafifxari.  The  curi- 
ous legend  of  an  oral  tradition  also  appears  in  Clement  {Hypotyp.  Fragm. 
in  Eusebius,  H.  E.  ii.  I.  4) :  'la/cwjScfJTy  diKaitp  /cat  'Iwcij't;  kuI  TliTp({i  /ierd 
TT]!'  avaaraffiv  TrapiScoKe  ttjv  yvQcnv  6  Kvpio?,  odroi  toIs  \onroh  dTroaroXots 
irapiSiiJKav,  oi  8e  \onrol  dwocrToXoi  Toli  e^Soix-qKOVTa,  uiv  eU  Tjv  Koi  liapva^a'!. 
Origen,  too,  speaks  of  "  things  spoken  in  private  to  the  disciples."' 

-  The  following  extract  from  Pico's  Apology  may  be  interesting,  as  illus- 
trating the  close  connexion  between  magic  and  science  at  this  period  : 
' '  One  of  the  chief  charges  against  me  is  that  I  am  a  magician.  Have  I  not 
myself  distinguished  two  kinds  of  magic?  One,  which  the  Greeks  call 
yo7]Teia,  depends  entirely  on  alliance  with  evil  spirits,  and  deserves  to  be 
regarded  with  horror,  and  to  be  punished  ;  the  other  is  magic  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  The  former  subjects  man  to  the  evil  spirits,  the  latter 
makes  them  serve  him.  The  former  is  neither  an  art  nor  a  science  ;  the 
latter  embraces  the  deepest  mysteries,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  whole  of 
Nature  with  her  powers.  While  it  connects  and  combines  the  forces 
scattered  by  God  through  the  whole  world,  it  does  not  so  much  work 
miracles  as  come  to  the  help  of  working  nature.  Its  researches  into  the 
sympathies  of  things  enable  it  to  bring  to  light  hidden  marvels  from  the 
secret  treasure-houses  of  the  world,  just  as  if  it  created  them  itself.  As  the 
countryman  trains  the  vine  upon  the  elm,  so  the  magician  marries  the 
earthly  objects  to  heavenly  bodies.  His  art  is  beneficial  and  Godlike,  for 
it  brings  men  to  wonder  at  the  works  of  God,  than  which  nothing  conduces 
more  to  true  religion," 


270  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

period  a  curious  alliance  of  Mysticism  and  natural 
science  against  scholasticism,  which  had  kept  both  in 
galling  chains  ;  and  both  mystics  and  physicists  invoked 
the  aid  of  Jewish  theosophy.  Just  as  Pythagoras,  Plato, 
and  Proclus  were  set  up  against  Aristotle,  so  the  occult 
philosophy  of  the  Jews,  which  on  its  speculative  side 
was  mere  Neoplatonism,  was  set  up  against  the  divinity 
of  the  Schoolmen.  In  Germany,  Reuchlin  (145  5-1  522) 
wrote  a  treatise,  On  the  Cabbalistic  Art,  in  which  a 
theological  scheme  resembling  those  of  the  Neoplaton- 
ists  and  speculative  mystics  was  based  on  occult 
revelation.  The  book  captivated  Pope  Leo  X.  and  the 
early  Reformers  alike. 

The  influence  of  Cabbalism  at  this  period  was  felt 
not  only  in  the  growth  of  magic,  but  in  the  revival  of 
the  science  of  allegorisni,  which  resembles  magic  in  its 
doctrine  of  occult  sympathies,  though  without  the 
theurgic  element.  According  to  this  view  of  nature, 
everything  in  the  visible  world  has  an  emblematic 
meaning.  Everything  that  a  man  saw,  heard,  or  did 
— colours,  numbers,  birds,  beasts,  and  flowers,  the 
various  actions  of  life — was  to  remind  him  of  some- 
thing else.^  The  world  was  supposed  to  be  full  of  sacred 
cryptograms,  and  every  part  of  the  natural  order  testi- 
fied in  hieroglyphics  ^  to  the  truths  of  Christianity. 
Thus  the  shamrock  bears  witness  to  the  Trinity,  the 


'  This  was  a  very  old  theory.  Cf.  Lecky,  Rationalism  in  Europe^  vol.  i. 
p.  264.  "The  Clavis  of  St.  Melito,  who  was  bishop  of  Sardis,  it  is  said, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  consists  of  a  catalogue  of  many 
hundreds  of  birds,  beasts,  plants,  and  minerals  that  were  symbolical  of 
Christian  virtues,  doctrines,  and  personages." 

^  The  analogy  between  allegorism  in  religion  and  the  hieroglyphic  writ- 
ing is  drawn  out  by  Clement,  Strom,  v.  4  and  7. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND   SYMBOLISM     271 

spider  is  an  emblem  of  the  devil,  and  so  forth.  This 
kind  of  symbolism  was  and  is  extensively  used  merely 
as  a  picture-language,  in  which  there  is  no  pretence 
that  the  signs  are  other  than  artificial  or  conventional. 
The  language  of  signs  may  be  used  either  to  instruct 
those  who  cannot  understand  words,  or  to  baffle  those 
who  can.  Thus,  a  crucifix  may  be  as  good  as  a  sermon 
to  an  illiterate  peasant ;  while  the  sign  of  a  fish  was 
used  by  the  early  Christians  because  it  was  unintelli- 
gible to  their  enemies.  This  is  not  symbolism  in  the 
sense  which  I  have  given  to  the  word  in  this  Lecture.^ 
But  it  is  otherwise  when  the  type  is  used  as  a  proof 
of  the  antitype.  This  latter  method  had  long  been  in 
use  in  biblical  exegesis.  Pious  persons  found  a  curious 
satisfaction  in  turning  the  most  matter  of  fact  state- 
ments into  enigmatic  prophecies.  Every  verse  must 
have  its  "  mystical  "  as  well  as  its  natural  meaning,  and 
the  search  for  "  types "  was  x\  recognised  branch  of 
apologetics.  Allegorism  became  authoritative  and 
dogmatic,  which  it  has  no  right  to  be.  It  would  be 
rash  to  say  that  this  pseudo-science,  which  has  proved 
so  attractive  to  many  minds,  is  entirely  valueless.  The 
very  absurdity  of  the  arguments  used  by  its  votaries 
should  make  us  suspect  that  there  is  a  dumb  logic 
of  a  more  respectable  sort  behind  them.  There  is, 
underlying  this  love  of  types  and  emblems,  a  strong 


^  The  distinction,  however,  would  be  unintelligible  to  the  savage  mind. 
To  primitive  man  a  name  is  a  symbol  in  the  strictest  sense.  Hence,  "  the 
knowledge,  invocation,  and  vain  repetition  of  a  deity's  name  constitutes  in 
itself  an  actual,  if  mystic,  union  with  the  deity  named  "  (Jevons,  Introduc- 
tion to  the  History  of  Religion,  p.  245).  This  was  one  of  the  chief  reasons 
for  making  a  secret  of  the  cultus,  and  even  of  the  name  of  a  patron-deity. 
To  reveal  it  was  to  admit  strangers  into  the  tutelage  of  the  national  god. 


272  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

conviction  that  if  "  one  eternal  purpose  runs  "  through 
the  ages,  it  must  be  discernible  in  small  things  as  well 
as  in  great.  Everything  in  the  world,  if  we  could  see 
things  as  they  are,  must  be  symbolic  of  the  Divine 
Power  which  made  it  and  maintains  it  in  being.  We 
cannot  believe  that  anything  in  life  is  meaningless, 
or  has  no  significance  beyond  the  fleeting  moment. 
Whatever  method  helps  us  to  realise  this  is  useful, 
and  in  a  sense  true.  So  far  as  this  we  may  go  with  the 
allegorists,  while  at  the  same  time  we  may  be  thankful 
that  the  cobwebs  which  they  spun  over  the  sacred 
texts  have  now  been  cleared  away,  so  that  we  can  at 
last  read  our  Bible  as  its  authors  intended  it  to  be  read.^ 


^  I  do  not  find  it  possible  to  give  a  more  honourable  place  than  this  to  a 
system  of  biblical  exegesis  which  has  still  a  few  defenders.  It  was  first 
developed  in  Christian  times  by  the  Gnostics,  and  was  eagerly  adopted  by 
Origen,  who  fearlessly  applied  it  to  the  Gospels,  teaching  that  "  Christ's 
actions  on  earth  were  enigmas  (alviyfiara),  to  be  interpreted  by  Gnosis." 
The  method  was  often  found  useful  in  dealing  with  moral  and  scientific 
difficulties  in  the  Old  Testament ;  it  enabled  Dionysius  to  use  very  bold 
language  about  the  literal  meaning,  as  I  showed  in  Lecture  III.  The 
Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria  meant  ^t  to  be  an  esoteric  method  : 
Clement  calls  it  a-vfipoXiKQ^  (pcXoaocpeiv.  It  was  held  that  ra  fivar-qpia 
fjLV(TTiKQ>%  irapaSiSoTai  ;  and  even  that  Divine  truths  are  honoured  by 
enigmatic  treatment  (-^  Kpv\l/ts  t;  fxvariKT]  cre/jLvoiroie?  to  Oelov).  But  the  main 
use  of  allegorism  was  pietistic  ;  and  to  this  there  can  be  no  objection, 
unless  the  piety  is  morbid,  as  is  the  case  in  many  commentaries  on  the  Song 
of  Solomon.  Still,  it  can  hardly  be  disputed  that  the  countless  books 
written  to  elaborate  the  principles  of  allegorism  contain  a  mass  of  futility 
such  as  it  would  be  difficult  to  match  in  any  other  class  of  literature.  The 
best  defence  of  the  method  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  Keble's Tract  (No.  89) 
on  the  "  Mysticism"  of  the  early  Fathers.  Keble's  own  poetry  contains 
many  beautiful  examples  of  the  true  use  of  symbolism  ;  but  as  an  apologist 
of  allegorism  he  does  not  distinguish  between  its  use  and  abuse.  Yet 
surely  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  seeing  in  the  "  glorious  sky 
embracing  all  "  a  type  of  "our  Maker's  love,"  and  analysing  the  153  fish 
caught  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee  into  the  square  of  the  12  Apostles  +  the  square 
of  the  3  Persons  of  the  Trinity. 

The  history  of  the  doctrine  of  "signatures,"  which  is  the  cryptogram 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     273 

Theosophical  and  magical  Mysticism  culminated  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  Just  as  the 
idealism  of  Plotinus  lost  itself  in  the  theurgic  system 
of  lamblichus,  so  the  doctrine  of  Divine  immanence 
preached  by  Eckhart  and  his  school  was  followed  by  the 
Nature-Mysticism  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  ^  and  Paracel- 
SUS.2  The  "  negative  road "  had  been  discredited  by 
Luther's  invective,  and  Mysticism,  instead  of  shutting 
her  eyes  to  the  world  of  phenomena,  stretched  forth  her 
hands  to  conquer  and  annex  it.  The  old  theory  of  a 
World-Spirit,  the  pulsations  of  whose  heart  are  felt  in 
all  the  life  of  the  universe,  came  once  more  into  favour. 
Through  all  phenomena,  it  was  believed,  runs  an 
intricate  network  of  sympathies  and  antipathies,  the 
threads  of  which,  could  they  be  disentangled,  would 

theory  applied  to  medicine,  is  very  curious  and  interesting,  "Citrons, 
according  to  Paracelsus,  are  good  for  heart  affections,  because  they  are 
heart-shaped  ;  the  saphena  riparu7n  is  to  be  applied  to  fresh  wounds, 
because  its  leaves  are  spotted  as  with  flecks  of  blood.  A  species  of  ofew/ar/d, 
whose  roots  resemble  teeth,  is  a  cure  for  toothache  and  scurvy." — Vaughan, 
Hours  with  the  Mystics,  vol.  ii.  p.  77.  It  is  said  that  some  traces  of  this 
quaint  superstition  survive  even  in  the  modern  materia  medica.  The 
alliance  between  medicine  and  Mysticism  subsisted  for  a  long  time,  and 
forms  a  curious  chapter  of  history. 

^  Cornelius  Agrippa  of  Nettesheim,  a  contemporary  of  Reuchlin,  studied 
Cabbalism  mainly  as  a  magical  science.  He  was  nominally  a  Catholic,  but 
attacked  Rome  and  scholasticism  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Luther.  His  three 
chief  works  are,  On  the  Threefold  Way  of  Knowing  God,  On  the  Vatiity  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  (a  ferocious  attack  on  most  of  the  professions),  and  On 
Occult  Philosophy  [ixtz-im^  of  natural,  celestial,  and  religious  magic).  The 
"magician,"  he  says,  "must  study  three  sciences — physics,  mathematics, 
and  theolog}'."     Agrippa's  adventurous  life  ended  in  1533. 

-  Theophrastus  Paracelsus  (Philippus  Bombastus  von  Hohenheim)  was 
born  in  1493,  and  died  in  1 541.  His  writings  are  a  curious  mixture  of 
theosophy  and  medical  science  :  "medicine,"  he  taught,  "has  four  pillars 
— philosophy,  astronomy  (or  rather  astrology),  alchemy,  and  religion."  He 
lays  great  stress  on  the  doctrine  that  man  is  a  microcosm,  and  on  the  law  of 
Divine  manifestation  by  contraries — the  latter  is  a  new  feature  which  was 
further  developed  by  Bohme. 
18 


274  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

furnish  us  with  a  clue  through  all  the  labyrinths  of 
natural  and  supernatural  science.  The  age  was  im- 
patient to  enter  on  the  inheritance  from  which 
humanity  had  long  been  debarred ;  the  methods  of 
experimental  science  seemed  tame  and  slow ;  and  so 
we  find,  especially  in  Germany,  an  extraordinary 
outburst  of  Nature-Mysticism — astrology,  white  magic, 
alchemy,  necromancy,  and  what  not — such  as  Chris- 
tianity had  not  witnessed  before.  These  pseudo- 
sciences  (with  which  was  mingled  much  real  progress 
in  medicine,  natural  history,  and  kindred  sciences) 
were  divided  under  three  provinces  or  "  vincula  " — 
those  of  the  Spiritual  World,  which  were  mainly 
magical  invocations,  diagrams,  and  signs  ;  those  of  the 
Celestial  World,  which  were  taught  by  astrology ;  and 
those  of  the  Elemental  World,  which  consisted  in  the 
sympathetic  influence  of  material  objects  upon  each 
other.  These  secrets  (it  was  held)  are  all  discoverable 
by  man  ;  for  man  is  a  microcosm,  or  epitome  of  the 
universe,  and  there  is  nothing  in  it  with  which  he  can- 
not claim  an  affinity.  In  knowing  himself,  he  knows 
both  God  and  all  the  other  works  that  God  has  made. 

The  subject  of  Nature-Mysticism  is  a  fascinating 
one  ;  but  I  must  here  confine  myself  to  its  religious 
aspects.  An  attempt  was  soon  made,  by  Valentine 
Weigel  (15  3  3-1  5  88),  Lutheran  pastor  at  Tschopau,  to 
bring  together  the  new  objective  Mysticism — freed  from 
its  superstitious  elements — and  the  traditional  subject- 
ive Mysticism  which  the  Middle  Ages  had  handed 
down  from  Dionysius  and  the  Neoplatonists.  Weigel's 
cosmology  is  based  on  that  of  Paracelsus ;  and  his 
psychology  also  reminds  us  of  him.      Man  is  a  micro- 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     275 

cosm,  and  his  nature  has  three  parts — the  outward 
material  body,  the  astral  spirit,  and  the  immortal  soul, 
which  bears  the  image  of  God.  The  three  faculties  of 
the  soul  correspond  to  these  three  parts ;  they  are 
sense,  reason  {Verfiunft),  and  understanding  {Ver- 
stand).  These  are  the  "  three  eyes  "  by  which  we  get 
knowledge.  The  sense  perceives  material  things ;  the 
reason,  natural  science  and  art;  the  understanding, 
which  he  also  calls  the  spark,  sees  the  invisible  and 
Divine,  He  follows  the  scholastic  mystics  in  distin- 
guishing between  natural  and  supernatural  knowledge, 
but  his  method  of  distinguishing  them  is,  I  think, 
original.  Natural  knowledge,  he  says,  is  not  conveyed 
by  the  object ;  it  is  the  percipient  subject  which  creates 
knowledge  out  of  itself.  The  object  merely  provokes 
the  consciousness  into  activity.  In  natural  knowledge 
the  subject  is  "  active,  not  passive "  ;  all  that  appears 
to  come  from  without  is  really  evolved  from  within. 
In  supernatural  knowledge  the  opposite  is  the  case. 
The  eye  of  the  "  understanding,"  which  sees  the  Divine, 
is  the  spark  in  the  centre  of  the  soul  where  lies  the 
Divine  image.  In  this  kind  of  cognition  the  subject 
must  be  absolutely  passive  ;  its  thoughts  must  be  as  still 
as  if  it  were  dead.  Just  as  in  natural  knowledge  the 
object  does  not  co-operate,  so  in  supernatural  know- 
ledge the  subject  does  not  co-operate.  Yet  this 
supernatural  knowledge  does  not  come  from  without. 
The  Spirit  and  Word  of  God  are  ivithin  us,  God  is 
Himself  the  eye  and  the  light  in  the  soul,  as  well  as 
the  object  which  the  eye  sees  by  this  light.  Super- 
natural knowledge  flows  from  within  outwards,  and  in 
this  way  resembles  natural  knowledge.      But  since  God 


276  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

is  both  the  eye  that  sees  and  the  object  which  it  sees, 
it  is  not  we  who  know  God,  so  much  as  God  who 
knows  Himself  in  us.  Our  inner  man  is  a  mere 
instrument  of  God. 

Thus  Weigel,  who  begins  with  Paracelsus,  leaves  off 
somewhere  near  Eckhart — and  Eckhart  in  his  boldest 
mood.  But  his  chief  concern  is  to  attack  the  Biblio- 
laters {Buchstabentheologeti)  in  the  Lutheran  Church, 
and  to  protest  against  the  unethical  dogma  of  imputed 
righteousness.  We  need  not  follow  him  into  either  of 
these  controversies,  which  give  a  kind  of  accidental 
colouring  to  his  theology.  Speculative  Mysticism, 
which  is  always  the  foe  of  formalism  and  dryness  in 
religion,  attacks  them  in  whatever  forms  it  finds  them  ; 
and  so,  when  we  try  to  penetrate  the  essence  of 
Mysticism  by  investigating  its  historical  manifestations, 
we  must  always  consider  what  was  the  system  which  in 
each  case  it  was  trying  to  purify  and  spiritualise. 
Weigel's  Mysticism  moves  in  the  atmosphere  of  Lutheran 
dogmatics.  But  it  also  marks  a  stage  in  the  general 
development  of  Christian  Mysticism,  by  giving  a  posit- 
ive value  to  scientific  and  natural  knowledge  as  part  of 
the  self-evolution  of  the  human  soul.  "  Study  nature," 
he  says,  "  physics,  alchemy,  magic,  etc. ;  for  it  is  all  in 
you,  and  you  become  what  you  have  learnt."  It  is  true 
that  his  religious  attitude  is  rigidly  quietistic  ;  but  this 
position  is  so  inconsistent  with  the  activity  which  he 
enjoins  on  the  "  reason,"  that  he  may  claim  the  credit  of 
having  exhibited  the  contradiction  between  the  positive 
and  negative  methods  in  a  clear  light ;  and  to  prove  a 
contradiction  is  always  the  first  step  towards  solving  it. 

A   more   notable  effort  in    the   same  direction  was 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     277 

that  of  Jacob  Bohme,  who,  though  he  had  studied 
VVeigel,  brought  to  his  task  a  philosophical  genius 
which  was  all   his  own. 

Bohme  was  born  in  1575  near  Gorlitz,  where  he  after- 
wards settled  as  a  shoemaker  and  glover.  He  began  to 
write  in  161  2,  and  in  spite  of  clerical  opposition,  which 
silenced  him  for  five  years,  he  produced  a  number  of 
treatises  between  that  date  and  his  death  in  1624. 

Bohme  professed  to  write  only  what  he  had  "  seen  " 
by  Divine  illumination.  His  visions  are  not  (with 
insignificant  exceptions)  authenticated  by  any  mar- 
vellous signs ;  he  simply  asserts  that  he  has  been 
allowed  to  see  into  the  heart  of  things,  and  that  the 
very  Being  of  God  has  been  laid  open  to  his  spiritua 
sight.^  His  was  that  type  of  mind  to  which  every 
thought  becomes  an  image,  and  a  logical  process  is 
like  an  animated  photograph.  "  I  am  myself  my  own 
book,"  he  says  ;  and  in  writing,  he  tries  to  transcribe 
on  paper  the  images  which  float  before  his  mind's  eye. 
If  he  fails,  it  is  because  he  cannot  find  words  to 
describe  what  he  is  seeing.  Bohme  was  an  unlearned 
man  ;  but  when  he  is  content  to  describe  his  visions  in 

^  "I  saw,"  he  says,  "the  Being  of  all  Beings,  the  Ground  and  the 
Abyss  ;  also,  the  birth  of  the  Holy  Trinity  ;  the  origin  and  first  state  of  the 
world  and  of  all  creatures.  I  saw  in  myself  the  three  worlds — the  Divine 
or  angelic  world ;  the  dark  world,  the  original  of  Nature ;  and  the 
external  world,  as  a  substance  spoken  forth  out  of  the  two  spiritual  worlds. 
...  In  my  inward  man  I  saw  it  well,  as  in  a  great  deep  ;  for  I  saw  right 
through  as  into  a  chaos  where  everything  lay  wrapped,  but  I  could  not 
unfold  it.  Yet  from  time  to  time  it  opened  itself  within  me,  like  a  growing 
plant.  For  twelve  years  I  carried  it  about  within  me,  before  I  could  bring 
it  forth  in  any  external  form  ;  till  afterwards  it  fell  upon  me,  like  a  bursting 
shower  that  killeth  wheresoever  it  lighteth,  as  it  will.  Whatever  I  could 
bring  into  outwardness,  that  I  wrote  down.  The  work  is  none  of  mine  ;  I 
am  but  the  Lord's  instrument,  wherewith  He  doeth  what  He  will." 


278  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

homely  German,  he  is  lucid  enough.  Unfortunately, 
the  scholars  who  soon  gathered  round  him  supplied 
him  with  philosophical  terms,  which  he  forthwith 
either  personified  —  for  instance  the  word  "  Idea " 
called  forth  the  image  of  a  beautiful  maiden — or  used 
in  a  sense  of  his  own.  The  study  of  Paracelsus  ob- 
scured his  style  still  more,  filling  his  treatises  with  a 
bewildering  mixture  of  theosophy  and  chemistry.  The 
result  is  certainly  that  much  of  his  work  is  almost 
unreadable ;  the  nuggets  of  gold  have  to  be  dug  out 
from  a  bed  of  rugged  stone  ;  and  we  cannot  be  sur- 
prised that  the  unmystical  eighteenth  century  declared 
that  "  Behmen's  works  would  disgrace  Bedlam  at  full 
moon."  ^  But  German  philosophers  have  spoken  with 
reverence  of  "  the  father  of  Protestant  Mysticism,"  who 
"  perhaps  only  wanted  learning  and  the  gift  of  clear 
expression  to  become  a  German  Plato " ;  and  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  shut  himself  up  for  three  months  to 
study  Bohme,  whose  teaching  on  attraction  and  the 
laws  of  motion  seemed  to  him  to  have  great  value.^ 
For  us,  he  is  most  interesting  as  marking  the  transi- 
tion from  the  purely  subjective  type  of  Mysticism  to 
Symbolism,  or  rather  as  the  author  of  a  brilliant 
attempt  to  fuse  the  two  into  one  system.  In  my 
brief  sketch  of  Bohme's  doctrines  I  shall  illustrate  his 
teaching  from  the  later  works  of  William  Law,  who  is 
by  far  its  best  exponent.  Law  was  an  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  Bohme,  and  being,  unlike  his  master,  a  man 
of  learning  and  a  practised  writer,  was  able  to  bring 

'  This  is  from  Bp.  Warburlon.     "  Sublime  nonsense,  inimitable  Imm- 
bast,  fustian  not  to  be  paralleled,"  is  John  Wesley's  verdict, 
-  See  Overton,  Life  of  Williatn  Law.  p.  i88. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     279 

order  out  of  the  chaos  in  which  Bohme  left  his  specula- 
tions. In  strength  of  intellect  Law  was  Bohme's 
equal,  and  as  a  writer  of  clear  and  forcible  English  he 
has  few  superiors. 

Bohme's  doctrine  of  God  and  the  world  resembles 
that  of  other  speculative  mystics,  but  he  contributes  a 
new  element  in  the  great  stress  which  he  lays  on 
antithesis  as  a  law  of  being.  "In  Yes  and  No  all 
things  consist,"  he  says.  No  philosopher  since 
Heraclitus  and  Empedocles  had  asserted  so  strongly 
that  "  Strife  is  the  father  of  all  things."  Even  in  the 
hidden  life  of  the  unmanifested  Godhead  he  finds  the 
play  of  Attraction  and  Diffusion,  the  resultant  of  which 
is  a  Desire  for  manifestation,  felt  in  the  Godhead.  As 
feeling  this  desire,  the  Godhead  becomes  "  Darkness  " ; 
the  light  which  illumines  the  darkness  is  the  Son. 
The  resultant  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  whom  arise  the 
archetypes  of  creation.  So  he  explains  Body,  Soul, 
and  Spirit  as  thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis ;  and  the 
same  formula  serves  to  explain  Good,  Evil,  and  Free 
Will ;  Angels,  Devils,  and  the  World.  His  view  of 
Evil  is  not  very  consistent ;  but  his  final  doctrine  is 
that  the  object  of  the  cosmic  process  is  to  exhibit  the 
victory  of  Good  over  Evil,  of  Love  over  Hatred.^  He 
at  least  has  the  merit  of  showing  that  strife  is  so 
inwoven  with  our  lives  here  that  we  cannot  possibly 
soar  above  the  conflict  between  Good  and  Evil.  It 
must  be  observed  that  Bohme  repudiated  the  doctrine 
that  there   is  any  evolution  of  God  in  time.     "  I  say 

^  I  have  omitted  Bohme's  gnostical  theoiies  as  to  the  seven  Qtiellgeister 
as  belonging  rather  to  theosophy  than  to  Mysticism.  The  resemblance  to 
Basilides  is  here  rather  striking,  but  it  must  be  a  pure  coincidence. 


28o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

not  that  Nature  is  God,"  he  says :  "  He  Himself  is  all, 
and  communicates  His  power  to  all  His  works."  But 
the  creation  of  the  archetypes  was  not  a  temporal 
act. 

Like  other  Protestant  mystics,  he  lays  great  stress 
on  the  indwelling  presence  of  Christ.  And,  con- 
sistently with  this  belief,  he  revolts  against  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness,  very 
much  as  did  the  Cambridge  Platonists  a  little  later. 
"  That  man  is  no  Christian,"  he  says,  "  who  doth 
merely  comfort  himself  with  the  suffering,  death,  and 
satisfaction  of  Christ,  and  doth  impute  it  to  himself  as 
a  gift  of  favour,  remaining  himself  still  a  wild  beast  and 
unregenerate.  ...  If  this  said  sacrifice  is  to  avail  for 
me,  it  must  be  wrought  in  me.  The  Father  must 
beget  His  Son  in  my  desire  of  faith,  that  my  faith's 
hunger  may  apprehend'  Him  in  His  word  of  promise. 
Then  I  put  Him  on,  in  His  entire  process  of  justifica- 
tion, in  my  inward  ground ;  and  straightway  there 
begins  in  me  the  killing  of  the  wrath  of  the  devil, 
death,  and  hell,  from  the  inward  power  of  Christ's 
death.  I  am  inwardly  dead,  and  He  is  my  life ;  I  live 
in  Him,  and  not  in  my  selfhood.  I  am  an  instrument 
of  God,  wherewith  He  doeth  what  He  will."  To  the 
same  effect  William  Law  says,  "  Christ  given  for  us  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  Christ  given  into  us.  He 
is  in  no  other  sense  our  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
Atonement,  than  as  His  nature  and  spirit  are  born  and 
formed  in  us."  Law  also  insists  that  the  Atonement 
was  the  effect,  not  of  the  wrath,  but  of  the  love  of  God. 
"  Neither  reason  nor  scripture,"  he  says,  "  will  allow  us 
to  bring  wrath  into  God  Himself,  as  a  temper  of  His 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     281 

mind,  who  is  only  infinite,  unalterable,  overflowing 
Love."  "  Wrath  is  atoned  when  sin  is  extinguished." 
This  revolt  against  the  forensic  theory  of  the  Atone- 
ment is  very  characteristic  of  Protestant  Mysticism.^  1 
The  disparagement  of  external  rites  and  ordinances, 
which  we  have  found  in  so  many  mystics,  appears  in 
William  Law,  though  he  was  himself  precise  in  ob- 
serving all  the  rules  of  the  English  Church.  "  This 
pearl  of  eternity  is  the  Church,  a  temple  of  God 
within  thee,  the  consecrated  place  of  Divine  worship, 
where  alone  thou  canst  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  In  spirit,  because  thy  spirit  is  that  alone  in 
thee  which  can  unite  and  cleave  unto  God,  and  receive 
the  working  of  the  Divine  Spirit  upon  thee.  In  trutJi, 
because  this  adoration  in  spirit  is  that  truth  and  reality 
of  which  all  outward  forms  and  rites,  though  in- 
stituted by  God,  are  only  the  figure  for  a  time ;  but 
this  worship  is  eternal.  Accustom  thyself  to  the  holy 
service  of  this  inward  temple.  In  the  midst  of  it  is 
the  fountain  of  living  water,  of  which  thou  mayst 
drink  and  live  for  ever.  There  the  mysteries  of  thy 
redemption  are  celebrated,  or  rather  opened  in  life  and 
power.  There  the  supper  of  the  Lamb  is  kept ;  the 
bread  that  came  down  from  heaven,  that  giveth  life  to 
the  world,  is  thy  true  nourishment :  all  is  done,  and 
known  in  real  experience,  in  a  living  sensibility  of  the 
work  of  God  on  the  soul.  There  the  birth,  the  life,  the 
sufferings,  the  death,  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of 
Christ,  are  not  merely  remembered,  but  inwardly  found 
and  enjoyed  as  the  real  states  of  thy  soul,  which  has 
followed  Christ  in  the  regeneration.     When   once  thou 

'  And  of  English  Mysticism  before  the  Reformation  ;  cf.  p.  20S'. 


282  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

art  well  grounded  in  this  inward  worship,  thou  wilt 
have  learnt  to  live  unto  God  above  time  and  place. 
For  every  day  will  be  Sunday  to  thee,  and  wherever 
thou  goest  thou  wilt  have  a  priest,  a  church,  and  an 
altar  along  with  thee."  ^ 

In  his  teaching  about  faith  and  love.  Law  follows 
the  best  mystical  writers ;  but  none  before  him,  I 
think,  attained  to  such  strong  and  growing  eloquence 
in  setting  it  forth.  "  There  is  but  one  salvation  for 
all  mankind,  and  the  way  to  it  is  one ;  and  that  is,  the 
desire  of  the  soul  turned  to  God.  This  desire  brings 
the  soul  to  God,  and  God  into  the  soul ;  it  unites  with 
God,  it  co-operates  with  God,  and  is  one  life  w^ith  God. 
O  my  God,  just  and  true,  how  great  is  Thy  love  and 
mercy  to  mankind,  that  heaven  is  thus  everywhere 
open,  and  Christ  thus  the  common  Saviour  to  all  that 
turn  the  desire  of  their  hearts  to  Thee  !  "  And  of  love 
he  says :  "  No  creature  can  have  any  union  or  com- 
munion with  the  goodness  of  the  Deity  till  its  life  is  a 
spirit  of  love.  This  is  the  one  only  bond  of  union 
betwixt  God  and  His  creature."  "  Love  has  no  by- 
ends,  wills  nothing  but  its  own  increase :  everything  is 
as  oil  to  its  flame.  The  spirit  of  love  does  not  want 
to  be  rewarded,  honoured,  or  esteemed  ;  its  only  desire 
is  to  propagate  itself,  and  become  the  blessing  and 
happiness  of  everything  that  wants  it." 

The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  spark  {synteresis)  is  held 
by  Law,  but  in  a  more  definitely  Christian  form  than 
by  Eckhart.     "If  Christ  was  to  raise  a  new  life  like 

^  From  the  Spi'nt  of  Prayer.  The  sect  of  Behmenists  in  Germany, 
unlike  Law,  attended  no  church,  and  took  no  part  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 
— Overton,  Life  of  IVilliaiii  Law,  p.  214. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     283 

His  own  in  every  man,  then  every  man  must  have  had 
originally  in  the  inmost  spirit  of  his  life  a  seed  of 
Christ,  or  Christ  as  a  seed  of  heaven,  lying  there  in  a 
state  of  insensibility,  out  of  which  it  could  not  arise 
but  by  the  mediatorial  power  of  Christ.  .  .  .  For 
what  could  begin  to  deny  self,  if  there  were  not  some- 
thing in  man  different  from  self?  .  .  .  The  Word  of 
God  is  the  hidden  treasure  of  every  human  soul, 
immured  under  flesh  and  blood,  till  as  a  day-star  it 
arises  in  our  hearts,  and  changes  the  son  of  an  earthly 
Adam  into  a  son  of  God."  Is  not  this  the  Platonic 
doctrine  of  anamnesis,  Christianised  in  a  most  beautiful 
manner  ? 

Very  characteristic  of  the  later  Mysticism  is  the 
language  which  both  Bohme  and  Law  use  about  the 
future  state.  "  The  soul,  when  it  departs  from  the 
body,"  Bohme  writes,  "  needeth  not  to  go  far ;  for 
where  the  body  dies,  there  is  heaven  and  hell.  God  is 
there,  and  the  devil ;  yea,  each  in  his  own  kingdom. 
There  also  is  Paradise ;  and  the  soul  needeth  only  to 
enter  through  the  deep  door  in  the  centre."  Law  is 
very  emphatic  in  asserting  that  heaven  and  hell  are 
states,  not  places,  and  that  they  are  "  no  foreign, 
separate,  and  imposed  states,  adjudged  to  us  by  the 
will  of  God."  "  Damnation,"  he  says,  "  is  the  natural, 
essential  state  of  our  own  disordered  nature,  which  is 
impossible,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  to  be  anything 
else  but  our  own  hell,  both  here  and  hereafter." 
"  There  is  nothing  that  is  supernatural,"  he  says  very 
finely,  "  in  the  whole  system  of  our  redemption. 
Every  part  of  it  has  its  ground  in  the  workings  and 
powers  of  nature,  and  all  our  redemption  is  only  nature 


284  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

set  right,  or  made  to  be  that  which  it  ought  to  be.^ 
There  is  nothing  that  is  supernatural  but  God  alone. 
.  .  .  Right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  true  and  false, 
happiness  and  misery,  are  as  unchangeable  in  nature 
as  time  and  space.  Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  done  to 
any  creature  supernaturally,  or  in  a  way  that  is  without 
or  contrary  to  the  powers  of  nature ;  but  every  thing 
or  creature  that  is  to  be  helped,  that  is,  to  have  any 
good  done  to  it,  or  any  evil  taken  out  of  it,  can  only 
have  it  done  so  far  as  the  powers  of  nature  are  able, 
and  rightly  directed  to  effect  it."" 

It  is  difficult  to  abstain  from  quoting  more  passages 
like  this,  in  which  Faith,  which  had  been  so  long  directed 
only  to  the  unseen  and  unknown,  sheds  her  bright 
beams  over  this  earth  of  ours,  and  claims  all  nature  for 
her  own.  The  laws  of  nature  are  now  recognised  as 
the  laws  of  God,  and  for  that  very  reason  they  cannot 
be  broken  or  arbitrarily  suspended.      Redemption  is  a 

'  This  stimulating  doctrine,  that  the  soul,  when  freed  from  impediments, 
ascends  naturally  and  inevitably  to  its  "own  place,"  is  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Beatrice  by  Dante  [Paradiso,  i.  136) — 

"  Non  dei  piu  ammirar,  se  bene  stimo, 

Lo  tuo  salir,  se  non  come  d'un  rivo, 

Se  d'alto  monte  scende  giuso  ad  imo. 

Maraviglia  sarebbe  in  te,  se  privo 

D'impedimento  giu  ti  fossi  assiso, 

Cora'  a  terra  quieto  fuoco  vivo. 

Quinci  rivohi;  in  ver  lo  cielo  il  viso." 
-  Il  may  be  interesting  to  compare  the  following  passage  from  George 
t'ox,  which  dramatises  the  irruption  of  natural  science,  with  its  faith  in 
fixed  laws,  into  the  sphere  of  the  religious  consciousness  : — "  One  morning, 
while  I  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  a  great  cloud  came  over  me,  a  temptation 
beset  me  ;  and  I  sat  still.  It  was  said,  All  things  come  by  Nature  ;  and 
the  elements  and  stars  came  over  me,  so  that  I  was  in  a  manner  quite 
clouded  by  it.  And  as  I  sat  still  under  it  and  let  it  alone,  a  living  hope 
and  a  true  voice  arose  in  me,  which  said,  T/iere  ?s  a  living  God  who  wade 
all  things.  Immediately  the  cloud  and  temptation  vanished  away,  and  life 
rose  over  it  all ;  my  heart  was  glad,  and  I  praised  the  living  God." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     285 

law  of  life.  There  will  come  a  time,^  "  the  time  of  the 
lilies,"  as  Bohme  calls  it,  when  all  nature  will  be 
delivered  from  bondage.  "  All  the  design  of  Christian 
redemption,"  says  Law,  "  is  to  remove  everything  that 
is  unheavenly,  gross,  dark,  wrathful,  and  disordered 
from  every  part  of  this  fallen  world."  No  text  is 
oftener  in  his  mouth  than  the  words  of  St.  Paul  which 
I  read  as  the  text  of  this  Lecture.  That  "  dim  sym- 
pathy "  of  the  human  spirit  with  the  life  of  nature 
which  Plotinus  felt,  but  which  mediaeval  dualism  had 
almost  quenched,  has  now  become  an  intense  and  happy 
consciousness  of  community  with  all  living  things,  as 
subjects  of  one  all-embracing  and  unchanging  law,  the 
law  of  perfect  love.  Magic  and  portents,  apparitions 
and  visions,  the  raptures  of  "  infused  contemplation  " 
and  their  dark  Nemesis  of  Satanic  delusions,  can  no 
more  trouble  the  serenity  of  him  who  has  learnt  to  .see 
the  same  God  in  nature  whom  he  has  found  in  the 
holy  place  of  his  own  heart. 

It  was  impossible  to  separate  Law  from  the  "  blessed 
Behmen,"  whose  disciple  he  was  proud  to  profess 
himself.  But  in  putting  them  together  I  have  been 
obliged  to  depart  from  the  chronological  order,  for 
the  Cambridge  Platonists,  as  they  are  usually  called, 
come  between.  This,  however,  need  cause  no  confu- 
sion, for  the  Platonists  had  no  direct  influence  upon 
Law.  Law,  Nonjuror  as  well  as  mystic,  remained  a 
High  Churchman  by  sympathy,  and  hated  Rational- 
ism ;  while  the   Platonists  sprang  from  an   Evangelical 

'  So  we  may  fairly  say,  if  we  remember  thai  we  are  speaking  of  what 
transcends  time.  Neither  Bohme  nor  Law  looks  forward  to  a  golden  age 
on  this  earth. 


286  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

school,  were  never  tired  of  extolling  Reason,  and 
regarded  Bohme  as  a  fanciful  "  enthusiast."  ^  And  yet, 
we  find  so  very  much  in  common  between  the  Platon- 
ists  and  William  Law,  that  these  party  differences 
seem  merely  superficial.  The  same  exalted  type  of 
Mysticism  appears  in  both. 

The  group  of  philosophical  divines,  who  had  their 
centre  in  some  of  the  Cambridge  colleges  towards  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  furnishes  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  important  chapters  in  the  history 
of  our  Church.  Never  since  the  time  of  the  early 
Greek  Fathers  had  any  orthodox  communion  produced 
thinkers  so  independent  and  yet  so  thoroughly  loyal 
to  the  Church.  And  seldom  has  the  Christian  temper 
found  a  nobler  expression  than  in  the  lives  and  writ- 
ings of  such  men  as  Whichcote  and  John  Smith.- 

*  Henry  More's  judgment  is  as  follows  :  "Jacob  Behmen,  I  conceive,  is 
to  he  reckoned  in  the  number  of  those  whose  imaginative  faculty  has  the 
pre-eminence  above  the  rational ;  and  though  he  was  a  good  and  holy 
man,  his  natural  complexion,  notwithstanding,  was  not  destroyed,  but  re- 
tained its  property  still ;  and,  therefore,  his  imagination  being  very  busy 
about  Divine  things,  he  could  not  without  a  miracle  fail  of  becoming  an 
enthusiast,  and  of  receiving  Divine  truths  upon  the  account  of  the  strength 
and  vigour  of  his  fancy ;  which,  being  so  well  qualified  with  holiness  and 
sanctity,  proved  not  unsuccessful  in  sundry  apprehensions,  but  in  others  it 
fared  with  him  after  the  manner  of  men,  the  sagacity  of  his  imagination 
failing  him,  as  well  as  the  anxiety  of  reason  does  others  of  like  integrity 
with  himself." 

'^  Canon  G.  G.  Perry,  in  his  Sfudenfs^  English  Church  History,  disposes 
of  this  noble  group  of  men  in  one  contemptuous  paragraph,  as  a  "class  of 
divines  who  were  neither  Puritans  nor  High  Churchmen,"  and  makes  the 
astounding  statement  that  "to  the  school  thus  commenced,  the  deadness, 
carelessness,  and  indifference  prevalent  in  the  eighteenth  century  are  in 
large  measure  to  be  attributed."  It  is  of  these  same  same  men  that  Bishop 
Burnet  writes,  that  if  they  had  not  appeared  to  combat  the  "laziness 
and  negligence,"  the  "ease  and  sloth"  of  the  Restoration  clergy,  "the 
Church  had  quite  lost  her  esteem  over  the  nation."  Alexander  Knox 
( lVo7-Jcs,  vol.  iii.  p.  199)  speaks  of  the  rise  of  this  school  as  a  great  instance 
of  the  design  of  Providence  to  supply  to  the  Church  what  had  never  before 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     287 

These  men  made  no  secret  of  their  homage  to  Plato. 
And  let  it  be  noticed  that  they  were  students  of  Plato 
and  Plotinus  more  than  of  Dionysius  and  his  succes- 
sors. Their  Platonism  is  not  of  the  debased  Oriental 
type,  and  is  entirely  free  from  self-absorbed  quietism. 
The  via  negativa  has  disappeared  as  completely  in 
their  writings  as  in  those  of  Bohme ;  the  world  is  for 
them  as  for  him  the  mirror  of  the  Deity ;  but,  being 
philosophers  and  not  physicists,  they  are  most  inter- 
ested in  claiming  for  religion  the  whole  field  of  intel- 
lectual life.  They  are  fully  convinced  that  there  can 
be  no  ultimate  contradiction  between  philosophy  or 
science  and  Christian  faith ;  and  this  accounts  not 
only  for  their  praise  of  "  reason,"  but  for  the  happy 
optimism  which  appears  everywhere  in  their  writings. 
The  luxurious  and  indolent  Restoration  clergy,  whose 
Hves  were  shamed  by  the  simplicity  and  spirituality  of 
the  Platonists,  invented  the  word  '*  Latitudinarian " 
to  throw  at  them,  "  a  long  nickname  which  they  have 
taught  their  tongues  to  pronounce  as  roundly  as  if  it 
were  shorter  than  it  is  by  four  or  five  syllables  "  ;  but 
they  could  not  deny  that  their  enemies  were  loyal  sons 
of  the  Church  of  England.^     What  the  Platonists  meant 

been  produced,  writers  who  do  "  full  honour  at  once  to  the  elevation  and 
the  rationality  of  Christian  piety.  ...  In  their  writings  we  are  invited  to 
ascend,  by  having  a  prospect  opened  before  us  as  luminous  as  it  is  sub- 
lime. .  .  .  They  are  such  writers  as,  had  never  before  existed.  .  .  .  No 
Church  but  the  English  Church  could  have  produced  them."  Of  John 
Smith  he  says,  "My  value  for  him  is  beyond  what  words  can  do  justice 
to."  The  works  of  Whichcote,  Smith,  Cudworth,  and  Culverwel  are 
happily  accessible  enough,  and  I  beg  my  readers  to  study  them  at  first 
hand.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  Christian  could  rise  from  the  perusal  of 
the  two  first-named  without  having  gained  a  lasting  benefit  in  the  deepen- 
ing of  his  spiritual  life  and  heightening  of  his  faith. 

^  A  writer  who  signs  himself  S.   P.  (probably  Simon  Patrick,  bishop  of 


288  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

*  by  making  reason  the  seat  of  authority  may  be  seen 
by  a  few  quotations  from  Whichcote  and  Smith,  who 
for  our  purpose  are,  I  think,  the  best  representatives  of 
the  school.  Whichcote  answers  Tuckney,  who  had 
remonstrated  with  him  for  "  a  vein  of  doctrine,  in 
which  reason  hath  too  much  given  to  it  in  the  mys- 
teries of  faith  "  ; — "  Too  much  "  and  "  too  often  "  on 
these  points !  "  The  Scripture  is  full  of  such  truths, 
and  I  discourse  on  them  too  much  and  too  often  !  Sir, 
I  oppose  not  rational  to  spiritual,  for  spiritual  is  most 
rational."  Elsewhere  he  writes,  "  He  that  gives  reason 
for  what  he  has  said,  has  done  what  is  fit  to  be  done, 
and  the  most  that  can  be  done."  "  Reason  is  the 
Divine  Governor  of  man's  life ;  it  is  the  very  voice  of 
God."  "  When  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  becomes 
the  reason  of  our  mind,  it  will  be  the  principle  of  our 
life."  "  It  ill  becomes  us  to  make  our  intellectual 
faculties  Gibeonites."  ^  How  far  this  teaching  differs 
from  the  frigid  "  common-sense "  morality  prevalent 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  may  be  judged  from  the 
following,  which  stamps  Whichcote  as  a  genuine 
mystic.  "  Though  liberty  of  judgment  be  everyone's 
right,  yet  how  few  there  are  that  make  use  of  this 
right !  For  the  use  of  this  right  doth  depend  upon 
self-improvement  by  meditation,  consideration,  examina- 
tion, prayer,  and   the  like.      These  are  things  antece- 


Ely),  in  a  pamphlet  called  A  Brief  Arcouut  of  Ihe  Jiew  Sec/  of  Latitude 
Men  (1662),  vindicates  their  attachment  to  the  "virtuous  mediocrity"  of 
the  Church  of  England,  as  distinguished  from  the  "  meretricious  gaudiness 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  squalid  sluttery  of  fanatic  conventicles." 

^Compare  with  these  extracts  the  words  of  Leibnitz:  "To  despise 
reason  in  matters  of  religion  is  to  my  eyes  certain  proof  either  of  an 
obstinacy  that  borders  on  fanaticism,  or,  what  is  worse,  of  hypocrisy." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     289 

dent  and  prerequisite."  John  Smith,  in  a  fine  passage 
too  long  to  quote  in  full,  says  :  "  Reason  in  man  being 
lumen  de  lumine,  a  light  flowing  from  the  Fountain  and 
Father  of  lights  .  .  .  was  to  enable  man  to  work  out 
of  himself  all  those  notions  of  God  which  are  the  true 
groundwork  of  love  and  obedience  to  God,  and  con- 
formity to  Him.  .  .  .  But  since  man's  fall  from  God, 
the  inward  virtue  and  vigour  of  reason  is  much  abated, 
the  soul  having  suffered  a  7rT€poppv7]ai<i,  as  Plato  speaks, 
a  defiuviunt  pennaru7n.  .  .  .  And  therefore,  besides  the 
truth  of  natural  inscription,  God  hath  provided  the 
truth  of  Divine  revelation.  .  .  .  But  besides  this  out- 
ward revelation,  there  is  also  an  inward  impression  of 
it.  .  .  .  which  is  in  a  more  special  manner  attributed 
to  God.  .  .  .  God  only  can  so  shine  upon  our  glassy 
understandings,  as  to  beget  in  them  a  picture  of  Him- 
self, and  turn  the  soul  like  wax  or  clay  to  the  seal  of 
His  own  light  and  love.  He  that  made  our  souls  in 
His  own  image  and  likeness  can  easily  find  a  way 
into  them.  The  Word  that  God  speaks,  having  found 
a  way  into  the  soul,  imprints  itself  there  as  with  the 
point  of  a  diamond.  ...  It  is  God  alone  that  acquaints 
the  soul  with  the  truths  of  revelation,  and  also 
strengthens  and  raises  the  soul  to  better  apprehen- 
sions even  of  natural  truth,  God  being  that  in  the 
intellectual  world  which  the  sun  is  in  the  sensible,  as 
some  of  the  ancient  Fathers  love  to  speak,  and  the 
ancient  philosophers  too,  who  meant  God  by  their 
Intellectiis  Agens}  whose  proper  work  they  supposed 
to  be  not  so  much  to  enlighten  the  object  as  the 
faculty." 

^  See  Appendix  C. 
19 


290  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

The  Platonists  thus  lay  great  stress  on  the  inner 
light,  and  identify  it  with  the  purified  reason.  The  best 
exposition  of  their  teaching  on  this  head  is  in  Smith's 
beautiful  sermon  on  "  The  True  Way  or  Method 
of  attaining  to  Divine  Knowledge."  "  Divinity,"  he 
says,  "  is  a  Divine  life  rather  than  a  Divine  science,  to 
be  understood  rather  by  a  spiritual  sensation  than  by 
any  verbal  description.  A  good  life  is  the  prolepsis 
of  Divine  science — the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  be- 
ginning of  wisdom.  Divinity  is  a  true  efflux  from  the 
eternal  light,  which,  like  the  sunbeams,  does  not  only 
enlighten,  but  also  heat  and  enliven  ;  and  therefore  our 
Saviour  hath  in  His  beatitudes  connext  purity  of  heart 
to  the  beatific  vision."  "  Systems  and  models  furnish 
but  a  poor  wan  light,"  compared  with  that  which 
shines  in  purified  souls.  "  To  seek  our  divinity  merely 
in  books  and  writings  is  to  seek  the  living  among  the 
dead  " ;  in  these,  "  truth  is  often  not  so  much  enshrined 
as  entombed."  "  That  which  enables  us  to  know  and 
understand  aright  the  things  of  God,  must  be  a  living 
principle  of  holiness  within  us.  The  sun  of  truth 
never  shines  into  any  unpurged  souls.  .  .  .  Such  as 
men  themselves  are,  such  will  God  Himself  seem  to 
be.  .  .  .  Some  men  have  too  bad  hearts  to  have  good 
heads.  .  .  ,  He  that  will  find  truth  must  seek  it  with  a 
free  judgment  and  a  sanctified  mind." 

Smith  was  well  read  in  mystical  theology,  and  was 
aware  how  much  his  ideal  differed  from  that  of 
Dionysian  Mysticism.  His  criticism  of  the  via  negativa 
is  so  admirable  that  I  must  quote  part  of  it.  "  Good 
men  .  .  .  are  content  and  ready  to  deny  themselves 
for  God,      I  mean  not  that  they  should  deny  their  own 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     291 

reason,  as  some  would  have  it,  for  that  were  to  deny  a 
beam  of  Divine  light,  and  so  to  deny  God,  instead  of 
denying  ourselves  for  Him.  ...  By  self-denial,  I  mean 
the  soul's  quitting  all  its  own  interest  in  itself,  and  an 
entire  resignation  of  itself  to  Him  as  to  all  points  of 
service  and  duty;  and  thus  the  soul  loses  itself  in  God, 
and  lives  in  the  possession  not  so  much  of  its  own 
being  as  of  the  Divinity,  desiring  only  to  be  great  in 
God,  to  glory  in  His  light,  and  spread  itself  in  His 
fulness ;  to  be  filled  always  by  Him,  and  to  empty 
itself  again  into  Him  ;  to  receive  all  from  Him,  and  to 
expend  all  for  Him  ;  and  so  to  live,  not  as  its  own, 
but  as  God's."  Wicked  men  "  maintain  a  vieum  and 
tuiim  between  God  and  themselves,"  but  the  good  man 
is  able  to  make  a  full  surrender  of  himself,  "  triumph- 
ing in  nothing  more  than  in  his  own  nothingness,  and 
in  the  allness  of  the  Divinity.  But,  indeed,  this  his 
being  nothing  is  the  only  way  to  be  all  things ;  this  his 
having  nothing  the  truest  way  of  possessing  all  things, 
.  .  .  The  spirit  of  religion  is  always  ascending  up- 
wards ;  and,  spreading  itself  through  the  whole  essence 
of  the  soul,  loosens  it  from  a  self-confinement  and 
narrowness,  and  so  renders  it  more  capacious  of  Divine 
enjoyment.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  a  good  man  is  always 
drinking  in  fountain-goodness,  and  fills  itself  more  and 
more,  till  it  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God."  "  It 
is  not  a  melancholy  kind  of- sitting  still,  and  slothful 
waiting,  that  speaks  men  enlivened  by  the  Spirit  and 
power  of  God.  It  is  not  religion  to  stifle  and  smother 
those  active  powers  and  principles  which  are  within  us. 
.  .  .  Good  men  do  not  walk  up  and  down  the  world 
rnerely  like  ghosts  and  shadows  j  but  they  are  indeed 


292  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

living  men,  by  a  real  participation   from   Him  who  is 
indeed  a  quickening  Spirit." 

"  Neither  were  it  an  happiness  worth  the  having  for 
a  mind,  like  an  hermit  sequestered  from  all  things  else, 
to  spend  an  eternity  in  self-converse  and  the  enjoy- 
ment of  such  a  diminutive  superficial  nothing  as  itself 
is.  .  .  .  We  read  in  the  Gospel  of  such  a  question  of 
our  Saviour's,  What  went  ye  out  into  the  wilderness  to 
see?  We  may  invert  it,  What  do  you  return  within 
to  see  ?  A  soul  confined  within  the  private  and 
narrow  cell  of  its  own  particular  being  ?  Such  a  soul 
deprives  itself  of  all  that  almighty  and  essential  glory 
and  goodness  which  shines  round  about  it,  which 
spreads  itself  throughout  the  whole  universe ;  I  say,  it 
deprives  itself  of  all  this,  for  the  enjoying  of  such  a 
poor,  petty,  and  diminutive  thing  as  itself  is,  which  yet 
it  can  never  enjoy  truly  in  such  retiredness." 

The  English  Platonists  are  equally  sound  on  the 
subject  of  ecstasy.  Whichcote  says :  "  He  doth  not 
know  God  at  all  as  He  is,  nor  is  he  in  a  good  state 
of  religion,  who  doth  not  find  in  himself  at  times 
ravishings  with  sweet  and  lovely  considerations  of 
the  Divine  perfections."  And  Smith :  "  Who  can  tell 
the  delights  of  those  mysterious  converses  with  the 
Deity,  when  reason  is  turned  into  sense,  and  faith 
becomes  vision  ?  The  fruit  of  this  knowledge  is 
sweeter  than  honey  and  the  honeycomb.  ...  By  the 
Platonists'  leave,  this  life  and  knowledge  (that  of  the 
*  contemplative  man ')  peculiarly  belongs  to  the  true 
and  sober  Christian.  This  life  is  nothing  else  but  an 
infant-Christ  formed  in  his  soul.  But  we  must  not 
mistake:  this  knowledge  is  here   but   in   its  infancy." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     293 

While  we  are  here,  "  our  own  imaginative  powers, 
which  are  perpetually  attending  the  best  acts  of  our 
souls,  will  be  breathing  a  gross  dew  upon  the  pure 
glass  of  our  understandings." 

"  Heaven  is  first  a  temper,  then  a  place,"  says  Which- 
cote,  and  Smith  says  the  same  about  hell.  "  Heaven 
is  not  a  thing  without  us,  nor  is  happiness  anything 
distinct  from  a  true  conjunction  of  the  mind  with 
God."  "  Though  we  could  suppose  ourselves  to  be  at 
truce  with  heaven,  and  all  Divine  displeasure  laid 
asleep  ;  yet  would  our  own  sins,  if  they  continue  unmorti- 
fied,  make  an  JEtna.  or  Vesuvius  within  us."  ^  This 
view  of  the  indissoluble  connexion  between  holiness 
and  blessedness,  as  between  sin  and  damnation,  leads 
Smith  to  reject  strenuously  the  doctrine  of  imputed, 
as  opposed  to  imparted,  righteousness.  "  God  does 
not  bid  us  be  warmed  and  filled,"  he  says,  "  and  deny 
us  those  necessities  which  our  starving  and  hungry 
souls  call  for.  ...  I  doubt  sometimes,  some  of  our 
dogmata  and  notions  about  justification  may  puff  us 
up  in  far  higher  and  goodlier  conceits  of  ourselves  than 
God  hath  of  us,  and  that  we  profanely  make  the 
unspotted  righteousness  of  Christ  to  serve  only  as  a 
covering  wherein  to  wrap  our  foul  deformities  and 
filthy  vices,  and  when  we  have  done,  think  ourselves 
in  as  good  credit  and  repute  with  God  as  we  are  with 
ourselves,  and  that  we  are  become  Heaven's  darlings  as 
much  as  we  are  our  own."  ^ 

^  The  classical  reader  will  be  reminded  of  Lucretius,  iii.  979-1036. 
Smith,  however,  would  not  have  relished  this  comparison.  He  devotes 
part  of  one  sermon  to  a  refutation  of  the  Epicurean  poet,  in  whom  he  sees 
a  precursor  of  his  /v/£  noire,  Hobbes  ! 

*  Compare  with  this  the  following  passage  of  Jean  de  Labadie  (1610- 


294  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

*rhese  extracts  will  show  that  the  English  Platonists 
breathe  a  larger  air  than  the  later  Romish  mystics,  and 
teach  a  religion  more  definitely  Christian  than  Erigena 
and  Eckhart.  I  shall  now  show  how  this  happy  result 
was  connected  with  a  more  truly  spiritual  view  of  the 
external  world  than  we  have  met  with  in  the  earlier 
part  of  our  survey.  That  the  laws  of  nature  are  the 
laws  of  God,  that  "  man,  as  man,  is  averse  to  what  is 
evil  and  wicked,"  that  "  evil  is  unnatural,"  and  a  "  con- 
tradiction of  the  law  of  our  being,"  which  is  only  found 
in  "  wicked  men  and  devils,"  is  one  of  Whichcote's 
"  gallant  themes."  And  Smith  sets  forth  the  true 
principles  of  Nature-Mysticism  in  a  splendid  passage, 
with  which  I  will  conclude  this  Lecture : — 

"  God  made  the  universe  and  all  the  creatures  con- 
tained therein  as  so  many  glasses  wherein  He  might 
reflect  His  own  glory.  He  hath  copied  forth  Himself 
in  the  creation  ;  and  in  this  outward  world  we  may 
read  the  lovely  characters  of  the  Divine  goodness, 
power,  and  wisdom.  .  .  .  But  how  to  find  God  here,  and 
feelingly  to  converse  with  Him,  and  being  affected 
with  the  sense  of  the  Divine  glory  shining  out  upon 
the  creation,  how  to  pass  out  of  the  sensible  world  into 
the  intellectual,   is   not   so   effectually  taught  by  that 


1674),  the  founder  of  a  mystical  school  on  the  Continent :  "  Flusieurs  sont 
bien  aises  d'ouyr  dire  qu'ils  sont  justifies  par  Jesus-Christ,  laves  de  leurs 
peches  en  son  sang  par  la  foi,  par  la  repentance  et  par  le  bapteme  chrestien, 
et  volontiers  ils  I'embrasent  comme  Justificateur,  comme  crucifie  et  niort 
pour  eux ;  mais  peu  prennent  part  a  sa  croix,  k  sa  mort,  pour  se  faire 
spirituellement  mourir  avec  Luy,  crucifier  leur  chair  avec  la  sienne,  et 
porter  en  eux-memes  les  vives  marques  de  sa  croix  et  de  sa  mort.  Peu  le 
goutent  comme  Justificateur  au  dedans  par  I'Esprit  consacrant  et  immolant 
le  vieil  honime  a  Dieu  el  par  une  pratique  vraiment  sainte,  laquelle  dompte 
le  peche." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     295 

philosophy  which  professed  it  most,  as  by  true  reh"gion. 
That  which  knits  and  unites  God  and  the  soul  together 
can  best  teach  it  how  to  ascend  and  descend  upon 
those  golden  links  that  unite,  as  it  were,  the  world  to 
God.  That  Divine  Wisdom,  that  contrived  and  beauti- 
fied this  glorious  structure,  can  best  explain  her  own 
art,  and  carry  up  the  soul  back  again  in  these  reflected 
beams  to  Him  who  is  the  Fountain  of  them.  .  .  .  Good 
men  may  easily  find  every  creature  pointing  out  to 
that  Being  whose  image  and  superscription  it  bears, 
and  climb  up  from  those  darker  resemblances  of  the 
Divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  shining  out  in  different 
degrees  upon  several  creatures,  till  they  sweetly  repose 
themselves  in  the  bosom  of  the  Divinity  ;  and  while  they 
are  thus  conversing  with  this  lower  world  .  .  .  they  find 
God  many  times  secretly  flowing  into  their  souls,  and 
leading  them  silently  out  of  the  court  of  the  temple 
into  the  Holy  Place.  .  .  .  Thus  religion,  where  it  is  in 
truth  and  power,  renews  the  very  spirit  of  our  minds, 
and  doth  in  a  manner  spiritualise  this  outward  creation 
to  us.  .  .  .  It  is  nothing  but  a  thick  mist  of  pride  and 
self-love  that  hinders  men's  eyes  from  beholding  that 
sun  which  enlightens  them  and  all  things  else.  ...  A 
good  man  is  no  more  solicitous  whether  this  or  that 
good  thing  be  mine,  or  whether  my  perfections  exceed 
the  measure  of  this  or  that  particular  creature ;  for 
whatsoever  good  he  beholds  anywhere,  he  enjoys  and 
delights  in  it  as  much  as  if  it  were  his  own,  and  what- 
ever he  beholds  in  himself,  he  looks  not  upon  it  as  his 
property,  but  as  a  common  good  ;  for  all  these  beams 
come  from  one  and  the  same  Fountain  and  Ocean  of 
Hsrht    in    whom    he   loves   them    all    with   an   universal 


296  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

love.  .  .  .  Thus  may  a  man  walk  up  and  down  the 
world  as  in  a  garden  of  spices,  and  suck  a  Divine 
sweetness  out  of  every  flower.  There  is  a  twofold 
meaning  in  every  creature,  a  literal  and  a  mystical, 
and  the  one  is  but  the  ground  of  the  other ;  and  as  the 
Jews  say  of  their  law,  so  a  good  man  says  of  every- 
thing that  his  senses  offer  to  him — it  speaks  to  his 
lower  part,  but  it  points  out  something  above  to  his 
mind  and  spirit.  It  is  the  drowsy  and  muddy  spirit  of 
superstition  which  is  fain  to  set  some  idol  at  its  elbow, 
something  that  may  jog  it  and  put  it  in  mind  of  God. 
Whereas  true  religion  never  finds  itself  out  of  the 
infinite  sphere  of  the  Divinity  ...  it  beholds  itself 
everywhere  in  the  midst  of  that  glorious  unbounded 
Being  who  is  indivisibly  everywhere.  A  good  man 
finds  every  place  he  treads  upon  holy  ground ;  to  him 
the  world  is  God's  temple ;  he  is  ready  to  say  with 
Jacob,  "  How  dreadful  is  this  place !  this  is  none  other 
than  the  house  of  God,  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven." 


LECTURE   VIII 


297 


"  For  nothing  worthy  proving  can  be  proven, 
Nor  yet  disproven  ;  wherefore  thou  be  wise, 
Cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of  Faith  I 
She  reels  not  in  the  storm  of  warring  words, 
She  brightens  at  the  clash  of  Ves  and  No, 
She  sees  the  Best  that  glimmers  through  the  Worst, 
She  feels  the  sun  is  hid  but  for  a  night. 
She  spies  the  summer  thro'  the  winter  bud. 
She  tastes  the  fruit  before  the  blossom  falls, 
She  hears  the  lark  within  the  songless  egg, 
She  finds  the  fountain  where  they  wail'd  'Mirage  I'" 

Tennyson,   The  Ancient  Sage. 

"Of  true  religions  there  are  only  two:  one  of  them  recognises  and 
worships  the  Holy  that  without  form  or  shape  dwells  in  and  around  us  ; 
and  the  other  recognises  and  worships  it  in  its  fairest  form.  Everything 
that  lies  between  these  two  is  idolatry." 

Goethe. 

"  My  wish  is  that  f  may  perceive  the  Cxod  whom  I  find  everywhere 
in  the  external  world,  in  like  manner  within  and  inside  me." 

Keplek. 

"  Getrost,  das  Leben  schreitet 

Zum  ew'gen  Leben  hin  ; 
Von  innrer  Gluth  geweitet 

\'erklart  sich  unser  Sinn. 
Die  Sternwelt  wird  zerfliesscn 

Zum  goldnen  Lebenswein, 
Wir  werden  sic  geniessen 

Und  lichte  Sterne  sein. 

Die  Lieb'  ist  freigegebcn 

Und  keine  Trennung  mehr 
Es  wogt  das  voile  Leben 

Wie  ein  unendlich  Meer. 
Nur  eine  Nacht  der  Wonne, 

Ein  ewiges  Gedicht  ! 
Und  unser  Aller  Sonne 

Ist  Gottes  Angesicht." 

NOVAI.IS. 


298 


LECTURE    VIII 

Nature-Mysticism — continued 

"  The  invisible  things  of  Him  since  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly 
seen,  being  understood  through  the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  ever- 
lasting power  and  Divinity." — Rom.  i.  20. 

In  my  last  Lecture  I  showed  how  the  later  Mysticism 
emancipated  itself  from  the  mischievous  doctrine  that 
the  spiritual  eye  can  only  see  when  the  eye  of  sense  is 
closed.  After  the  Reformation  period  the  mystic  tries 
to  look  with  both  eyes ;  his  aim  is  to  see  God  in  all 
things,  as  well  as  all  things  in  God.  He  returns  with 
better  resources  to  the  task  of  the  primitive  religions, 
and  tries  to  find  spiritual  law  in  the  natural  world.  It 
is  true  that  a  strange  crop  of  superstitions,  the  seeds 
of  which  had  been  sown  long  before,  sprang  up  to 
mock  his  hopes.  In  necromancy,  astrology,  alchemy, 
palmistry,  table-turning,  and  other  delusions,  we  have 
what  some  count  the  essence,  and  others  the  reproach, 
of  Mysticism.  But  these  are,  strictly  speaking,  scien- 
tific and  not  religious  errors.  From  the  standpoint  of 
religion  and  philosophy,  the  important  change  is  that,  in 
the  belief  of  these  later  mystics,  the  natural  and  the 
spiritual  are,  somehow  or  other,  to  be  reconciled ;  the 
external  world  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a  place  of  exile 
from  God,  or  as  a  delusive  appearance  ;    it  is  the  living 


300  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

^  vesture  of  the  Deity  ;  and  its  "  discordant  harmony,"  ^ 
though  "  for  the  many  it  needs  intepreters,"  ^  yet  "  has 
a  voice  for  the  wise  "  which  speaks  of  things  behind  the 
veil.  The  glory  of  God  is  no  longer  figured  as  a 
blinding  white  light  in  which  all  colours  are  combined 
and  lost ;  but  is  seen  as  a  "  many-coloured  wisdom  "  ^ 
which  shines  everywhere,  its  varied  hues  appearing  not 
only  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  lonely  soul,  but  in  all  the 
wonders  that  science  can  discover,  and  all  the  beauties 
that  art  can  interpret.  Dualism,  with  the  harsh 
asceticism  which  belongs  to  it,  has  given  way  to  a 
brighter  and  more  hopeful  philosophy ;  men's  outlook 
upon  the  world  is  more  intelligent,  more  trustful,  and 
more  genial ;  only  for  those  who  perversely  seek  to 
impose  the  ethics  of  selfish  individualism  upon  a  world 
which  obeys  no  such  law,  science  has  in  reserve  a 
blacker  pessimism  than  ever  brooded  over  the  ascetic 
of  the  cloister. 

We  shall  not  meet,  in  this  chapter,  any  finer 
examples  of  the  Christian  mystic  than  John  Smith 
and  William  Law.  But  these  men,  and  their  intel- 
lectual kinsmen,  were  far  from  exhausting  the  treasure 
of  Nature-Mysticism.  The  Cambridge  Platonists, 
indeed,  somewhat  undervalued  the  religious  lessons 
of  Nature.  They  were  scholars  and  divines,  and  what 
lay  nearest  their  heart  was  the  consecration  of  the 
reason — that  is,  of  the  whole  personality  under  the 
guidance  of  its  highest  faculty — to  the  service  of  truth 
and  goodness.  And  Law,  in  his  later  years,  was  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  Bohme's  fantastic  theosophy 

^  Horace,  Ep.  i.  12.  19.  ^  Pindar,  Olymp.  ii.  154. 

•*  ttoXvitoIkCKos  aocpla,  Eph.  iii.  10. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     301 

to  bring  to  Nature  that  childlike  spirit  which  can  best 
learn  her  lessons. 

The  Divine  in  Nature  has  hitherto  been  discerned 
more  fully  by  the  poet  than  by  the  theologian  or  the 
naturalist ;  and  in  this  concluding  Lecture  I  must  deal 
chiefly  with  Christian  poetry.  The  attitude  towards 
Nature  which  we  have  now  to  consider  is  more  con- 
templative than  practical ;  it  studies  analogies  in  order 
to  knoiu  the  unseen  powers  which  surround  us,  and  has 
no  desire  to  bend  them  or  make  them  its  instruments. 

Our  Lord's  precept,  "  Consider  the  lilies,"  sanctions 
this  religious  use  of  Nature  ;  and  many  of  His  parables, 
such  as  that  of  the  Sower,  show  us  how  much  we  may 
learn  from  such  analogies.  And  be  it  observed  that  it 
is  the  normal  and  regular  in  Nature  which  in  these 
parables  is  presented  for  our  study ;  the  yearly  harvest, 
not  the  three  years'  famine ;  the  constant  care  and 
justice  of  God,  not  the  "  special  providence "  or  the 
"  special  judgment."  We  need  not  wait  for  catastrophes 
to  trace  the  finger  of  God.  As  for  Christian  poetry 
and  art,  we  do  not  expect  to  find  any  theory  of  aesthetic 
in  the  New  Testament ;  but  we  may  perhaps  extract 
from  the  precept  quoted  above  the  canon  that  the 
highest  beauty  that  we  can  discern  resides  in  the  real 
and  natural,  and  only  demands  the  seeing  eye  to  find  it. 

In  the  Greek  Fathers  we  find  great  stress  laid  on  the 
glories  of  Nature  as  a  revelation  of  God.  Cyril  says, 
"  The  wider  our  contemplation  of  creation,  the  grander 
will  be  our  conception  of  God,"  And  Basil  uses  the 
same  language.  We  find,  indeed,  in  these  writers  a' 
marked  tendency  to  exalt  the  religious  value  of  natural 
beauty,  and  to  disparage  the  function  of  art — a  pre- 


302  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

monition,  perhaps,  of  iconoclasm.  Pagan  art,  which 
was  decaying  before  the  advent  of  Christ,  could  not, 
it  appears,  be  quietly  Christianised  and  carried  on 
without  a  break. 

The  true  Nature  -  Mysticism  is  prominent  in  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi.  He  loves  to  see  in  all  around  him 
the  pulsations  of  one  life,  which  sleeps  in  the  stones, 
dreams  in  the  plants,  and  wakens  in  man.  "  He  would 
remain  in  contemplation  before  a  flower,  an  insect,  or  a 
bird,  and  regarded  them  with  no  dilettante  or  egoistic 
pleasure ;  he  was  interested  that  the  plant  should  have 
its  sun,  the  bird  its  nest ;  that  the  humblest  manifesta- 
tions of  creative  force  should  have  the  happiness  to 
which  they  are  entitled."  ^  So  strong  was  his  conviction 
that  all  living  things  are  children  of  God,  that  he  would 
preach  to  "  my  little  sisters  the  birds,"  and  even  under- 
took the  conversion  of  "  the  ferocious  wolf  of  Agobio." 

This  tender  reverence  for  Nature,  which  is  a  mark 
of  all  true  Platonism,  is  found,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
Plotinus,  It  is  also  prominent  in  the  Platonists  of  the 
Renaissance,  such  as  Bruno  and  Campanella,-  and  in 
Petrarch,  who  loved  to  offer  his  evening  prayers  among 
the  moonlit  mountains.  Suso  has  at  least  one  beauti- 
ful passage  on  the  sights  and  sounds  of  spring,  and 
exclaims,  "  O  tender  God,  if  Thou  art  so  loving  in  Thy 
creatures,  how  fair  and  lovely  must  Thou  be  in  Thy- 
self! "  -^     The  Reformers,  especially  Luther  and  Zwingli, 

*  Barine  in  Revue  Jes  Deux  iMomies,  April  1891. 

-  Tlie  latter,  like  Fechner  in  our  own  century,  holds  that  the  stars  are 
living  organisms,  whose  "sensibility  is  full  of  pleasure." 

•*  See  Illingworth's  Divine  Itiunamnce,  where  this  and  other  interesting 
passages  are  quoted.  But  Suso  was,  of  course,  not  a  "  Protestant  mystic." 
And   1  cannot  agree  with  the  author  when  he  says  that  Lucretius  found  no 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     303 

are  more  alive  than  might  have  been  expected  to  the 
vahie  of  Nature's  lessons ;  and  the  French  mystics, 
Francis  de  Sales  and  Fenelon,  write  gracefully  about 
the  footprints  of  the  Divine  wisdom  and  beauty  which 
may  be  traced  everywhere  in  the  world  around  us. 

But  natural  religion  is  not  to  be  identified  with 
Mysticism,  and  it  would  not  further  our  present  inquiry 
to  collect  passages,  in  prose  or  poetry,  which  illustrate 
the  aids  to  faith  which  the  book  of  Nature  may  supply. 
Nor  need  we  dwell  on  such  pure  Platonism  as  we  find 
in  Spenser's  "  Hymn  of  Heavenly  Beauty,"  or  some  of 
Shelley's  poems,  in  which  we  are  bidden  to  gaze  upon 
the  world  as  a  mirror  of  the  Divine  Beauty,  since  our 
mortal  sight  cannot  endure  the  "  white  radiance "  of 
the  eternal  archetypes.^      We  have  seen  how  this  view 

religious  inspiration  in  Nature.  Tiie  poet  of  the  Nature  of  Things  shows 
himself  to  have  been  a  lonely  man,  who  had  pondered  much  among  the 
hills  and  by  the  sea,  and  who  loved  to  taste  the  pure  delights  of  the 
spring.  Thence  came  to  him  the  "holy  joy  and  dread"  ("quredam  divina 
voluptas  atque  horror ")  which  pulsates  through  his  great  poem  as  he 
shatters  the  barbarous  mythology  of  paganism,  and  then,  in  the  spirit  of 
a  priest  rather  than  of  a  philosopher,  turns  the  "bright  shafts  of  day" 
upon  the  folly  and  madness  of  those  who  are  slaves  to  the  world  or  the 
flesh.  The  spirit  of  Lucretius  is  the  spirit  of  modern  science,  which  tends 
neither  to  materialism  nor  to  atheism,  whatever  its  friends  and  enemies  mav 
say. 

^  Christian  Platonism  has  never  been  more  beautifully  set  forth  than  in 
the  poem  of  Spenser  named  above.  Compare,  especially,  the  following 
stanzas : — 

"  The  means,  therefore,  which  unto  us  is  lent 

Him  to  behold,  is  on  His  works  to  look, 

Which  He  hath  made  in  beauty  excellent, 

And  in  the  same,  as  in  a  brazen  book 

To  read  enregistered  in  every  nooke 

His  goodness,  which  His  beauty  dotli  declare  : 

For  all  that's  good  is  beautiful  and  fair. 

Thence  gathering  plumes  of  perfect  speciilation. 
To  imp  the  wings  of  thy  high-flying  mimL 


304  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

of  the  world  as  a  pale  reflection  of  the  Ideas  leads  in 
practice  to  a  contempt  for  visible  things ;  as,  indeed,  it 
does  in  Spenser's  beautiful  poem.  He  invites  us,  after 
learning  Nature's  lessons,  to 

"  Look  at  last  up  to  that  sovereign  light, 
From  whose  pure  beams  all  perfect  beauty  springs ; 
That  kindleth  love  in  every  godly  spright, 
Even  the  love  of  God  ;  which  loathing  brings 
Of  this  vile  world  and  these  gay-seeming  things  ; 
With  whose  sweet  pleasures  being  so  possessed, 
Thy  straying  thoughts  henceforth  for  ever  rest." 

This  is  not  the  keynote  of  the  later  Nature-Mysticism. 
We  now  expect  that  every  new  insight  into  the  truth 
of  things,  every  enlightenment  of  the  eyes  of  our  under- 
standing, which  may  be  granted  us  as  the  reward  of 
faith,  love,  and  purity  of  heart,  will  make  the  world 
around  us  appear,  not  viler  and  baser,  but  more  glorious 
and  more  Divine.  It  is  not  a  proof  of  spirituality,  but 
of  its  opposite,  if  God's  world  seems  to  us  a  poor  place. 
If  we  could  see  it  as  God  sees  it,  it  would  be  still,  as 
as  on  the  morning  of  creation,  "  very  good."  The 
hymn  which  is  ever  ascending  from  the  earth  to  the 
throne  of  God  is  to  be  listened  for,  that  we  may  join  in 
it.      The  laws   by  which  all  creation  lives   are   to   be 

Mount  up  aloft  through  heavenly  contemplation, 
From  this  dark  world,  whose  damps  the  soul  do  blind, 
On  that  bright  Sun  of  glory  fix  thine  eyes, 
Cleared  from  gross  mists  of  frail  infirmities." 

Shelley  sums  up  a  great  deal  of  Plotinus  in   the  following  stanza  of 
"  Adonais"  : — • 

"  The  One  remains;  the  many  change  and  pass; 
Heaven's  light  for  ever  shines  ;  earth's  shadows  fly  ; 
Life,  like  a  dome  of  many-coloured  glass, 
Stains  the  white  radiance  of  eternity." 
Compare,  too,  the  opening  lines  of  "  Alastor." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM    305 

studied,  that  we  too  may  obey  them.  As  for  the 
beauty  which  is  everywhere  diffused  so  lavishly,  it 
seems  to  be  a  gift  of  God's  pure  bounty,  to  bring 
happiness  to  the  unworldly  souls  who  alone  are  able  to 
see  and  enjoy  it. 

The  greatest  prophet  of  this  branch  of  contemplative 
Mysticism  is  unquestionably  the  poet  Wordsworth.  It 
was  the  object  of  his  life  to  be  a  religious  teacher,  and 
I  think  there  is  no  incongruity  in  placing  him  at  the 
end  of  the  roll  of  mystical  divines  who  have  been  dealt 
with  in  these  Lectures.  His  intellectual  kinship  with 
the  acknowledged  representatives  of  Nature-Mysticism 
will,  I  hope,  appear  very  plainly. 

Wordsworth  was  an  eminently  sane  and  manly  spirit. 
He  found  his  philosophy  of  life  early,  and  not  only 
preached  but  lived  it  consistently.  A  Platonist  by 
nature  rather  than  by  study,  he  is  thoroughly  Greek  in 
his  distrust  of  strong  emotions  and  in  his  love  of  all 
which  the  Greeks  included  under  a-w^poavvT).  He  was 
a  loyal  Churchman,  but  his  religion  was  really  almost 
independent  of  any  ecclesiastical  system.  His  ecclesi- 
astical sonnets  reflect  rather  the  dignity  of  the  Anglican 
Church  than  the  ardent  piety  with  which  our  other  poet- 
mystics,  such  as  Herbert,  Vaughan,  and  Crashaw,  adorn 
the  offices  of  worship.  His  cast  of  faith,  intellectual 
and  contemplative  rather  than  fervid,  and  the  solitari- 
ness of  his  thought,  forbade  him  to  find  much  satisfac- 
tion in  pubHc  ceremonial.  He  would  probably  agree 
with  Galen,  who  in  a  very  remarkable  passage  says 
that  the  study  of  nature,  if  prosecuted  with  the  same 
earnestness  and  intensity  which  men  bring  to  the  con- 
templation of  the  "  Mysteries,"  is  even  more  fitted  than 
20 


3o6  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

they  to  reveal  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God  ;  for  "  the 
symbolism  of  t/ie  mysteries  is  more  obscure  than  that  of 
nature." 

He  shows  his  affinity  with  the  modern  spirit  in  his 
firm  grasp  of  natural  law.  Like  George  Fox  and 
William  Law,  he  had  to  face  the  shock  of  giving  up  his 
belief  in  arbitrary  interferences.  There  was  a  period 
when  he  lost  his  young  faculty  of  generalisation  ;  when 
he  bowed  before  the  inexorable  dooms  of  an  unknown 
Lawgiver — "  the  categorical  imperative,"  till  the  gift  ^ 
of  intuition  was  restored  to  him  in  fuller  measure. 
This  experience  explains  his  attitude  towards  natural 
science.  His  reverence  iox  facts  never  failed  him  ;  "  the 
sanctity  and  truth  of  nature,"  he  says,  "  must  not  be 
tricked  out  with  accidental  ornaments  "  ;  but  he  looked 
askance  at  the  science  which  tries  to  erect  itself  into  a 
philosophy.  Physics,  he  saw  plainly,  is  an  abstract 
study :  its  view  of  the  world  is  an  abstraction  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  and  possesses  less  truth  than  the  view  of 
the  poet.^  And  yet  he  looked  forward  to  a  time  when 
science,  too,  shall  be  touched  with  fire  from  the  altar ; — 

"  Then  her  heart  shall  kindle  ;  her  dull  eye, 
Dull  and  inanimate,  no  more  shall  hang 
Chained  to  its  object  in  brute  slavery." 

And  in  a  remarkable  passage  of  the  "  Prefaces"  he  says, 
"  If  the  time  should  ever  come  when  that  which  is  now 

^  Compare  the  following  sentences  in  Bradley's  Appearance  and  Reality  : 
"  Nature  viewed  materialistically  is  only  an  abstraction  for  certain  pur- 
poses, and  has  not  a  high  degree  of  truth  or  reality.  The  poet's  nature 
has  much  more.  .  .  .  Our  principle,  that  the  abstract  is  the  unreal,  moves 
us  steadily  upward.  ...  It  compels  us  in  the  end  to  credit  nature  with 
our  higher  emotions.  That  process  can  only  cease  when  nature  is  quite 
absorbed  into  spirit,  and  at  every  stage  of  the  process  we  find  increase  in 
reality." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     307 

called  science  shall  be  ready  to  put  on  as  it  were  a 
form  of  flesh  and  blood,  the  poet  will  lend  his  Divine 
spirit  to  aid  the  transformation,  and  will  welcome  the 
Being  thus  produced  as  a  dear  and  genuine  inmate  of 
the  household  of  man."  He  feels  that  the  loving  and 
disinterested  study  of  nature's  laws  must  at  last  issue, 
not  in  materialism,  but  in  some  high  and  spiritual 
faith,  inspired  by  the  Word  of  God,  who  is  Himself,  as 
Erigena  said,  "  the  Nature  of  all  things." 

In  aloofness  and  loneliness  of  mind  he  is  exceeded 
by  no  mystic  of  the  cloister.  It  may  be  said  far  more 
truly  of  him  than  of  Milton,  that  "  his  sdul  was  like 
a  star,  and  dwelt  apart."  In  his  youth  he  confesses 
that  human  beings  had  only  a  secondary  interest  for 
him  ;  ^  and  though  he  says  that  Nature  soon  led  him 
to  man,  it  was  to  man  as  a  "  unity,"  as  "  one  spirit," 
that  he  was  drawn,  not  to  men  as  individuals.^  Herein 
he  resembled  many  other  contemplative  mystics ;  but 
it  has  been  said  truly  that  "  it  is  easier  to  know  man  in 
general  than  a  man  in  particular."  ^  The  sage  who 
"  sits  in  the  centre "  of  his  being,  and  there  "  enjoys 
bright  day,"  ^  does  not  really  know  human  beings  as 
persons. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  compare  the  steps  in  the 
ladder  of  perfection,  as  described  by  Wordsworth,  with 
the  schemes  of  Neoplatonism  and  introspective  Mystic- 
ism. The  three  stages  of  the  mystical  ascent  have 
been  already  explained.  We  find  that  Wordsworth, 
too,  had  his  purgative,  disciplinary  stage.      He  began 

^  "  Prelude,"  viii.  340  sq.  "  "  Prelude,"  viii.  66S. 

^  La  Rochefoucauld. 

*  These  words,  from  Milton's  "  Comus,"  are  applied  to  Wordsworth  by 
Hazlitt. 


3o8  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

by  deliberately  crushing,  not  only  the  ardent  passions 
to  which  he  tells  us  that  he  was  naturally  prone,  but 
all  ambition  and  love  of  money,  determining  to  confine 
himself  to  "  such  objects  as  excite  no  morbid  passions, 
no  disquietude,  no  vengeance,  and  no  hatred,"  and 
found  his  reward  in  a  settled  state  of  calm  serenity,  in 
which  all  the  thoughts  flow  like  a  clear  fountain,  and 
have  forgotten  how  to  hate  and  how  to  despise.^ 

Wordsworth  is  careful  to  inculcate  several  safe- 
guards for  those  who  would  proceed  to  the  contem- 
plative life.  First,  there  must  be  strenuous  aspiration 
to  reach  that  infinitude  which  is  our  being's  heart  and 
home ;  we  must  press  forward,  urged  by  "  hope  that 
can  never  die,  effort,  and  expectation,  and  desire,  and 
something  evermore  about  to  be."  ^  The  mind  which 
is  set  upon  the  unchanging  will  not  "  praise  a  cloud,"  ^ 
but  will  "  crave  objects  that  endure."  In  the  spirit  of 
true  Platonism,  as  contrasted  with  its  later  aberra- 
tions, Wordsworth  will  have  no  blurred  outlines.  He 
tries  always  to  see  in  Nature  distinction  without 
separation ;  his  principle  is  the  exact  antithesis  of 
Hume's  atheistic  dictum,  that  "  things  are  conjoined, 
but  not  connected."  ^      The  importance  of  this  caution 

'  "  Prelude,"  iv.  1207-1229.  The  ascetic  element  in  Wordsworth's  ethics 
should  by  no  means  be  forgotten  by  those  who  envy  his  brave  and  unruffled 
outlook  upon  life.  As  Hutton  says  excellently  (Essays,  p.  81),  "there  is 
volition  and  self-government  in  every  line  of  his  poetry,  and  his  best 
thoughts  come  from  the  steady  resistance  he  opposes  to  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
ordinary  desires  and  regrets.  He  contests  the  ground  inch  by  inch  with 
all  despondent  and  indolent  humours,  and  often,  too,  with  movements  of 
inconsiderate  and  wasteful  joy — turning  defeat  into  victory,  and  victory 
into  defeat."     See  the  whole  passage. 

2  "  Prelude,"  vi.  604-608.  •■  "  Miscell.  Sonnets,"  xii. 

^  See  the  Essay  in  which  he  deals  with  Macpherson  :  "  In  nature  every- 
thing is  distinct,  yet  nothing  defined  into  absolute  independent  singleness. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     309 

has  been  fully  demonstrated  in  the  course  of  our 
inquiry.  Then,  too,  he  knows  that  to  imperfect  man 
reason  is  a  crown  "  still  to  be  courted,  never  to  be  won." 
Delusions  may  affect  "  even  the  very  faculty  of  sight," 
whether  a  man  "look  forth,"  or  "  dive  into  himself."^ 
Again,  he  bids  us  seek  for  real,  and  not  fanciful 
analogies ;  no  "  loose  types  of  things  through  all 
degrees  "  ;  no  mythology  ;  and  no  arbitrary  symbolism. 
The  symbolic  value  of  natural  objects  is  not  that  they 
remind  us  of  something  that  they  are  not,  but  that 
they  help  us  to  understand  something  that  they  in 
part  are.  They  are  not  intended  to  transport  us  away 
from  this  earth  into  the  clouds.  "  This  earth  is  the 
world  of  all  of  us,"  he  says  boldly,  "  in  which  we  find 
our  happiness  or  not  at  all."  ^  Lastly,  and  this  is 
perhaps  the  most  important  of  all,  he  recognises  that 
the  still  small  voice  of  God  breathes  not  out  of  nature 
alone,  nor  out  of  the  soul  alone,  but  from  the  contact 
of  the  soul  with  nature.  It  is  the  marriage  of  the 
intellect  of  man  to  "  this  goodly  universe,  in  love  and 
holy  passion,"  which  produces  these  raptures.  "  Intel- 
lect "  includes  Imagination,  which  is  but  another  name 
for  Reason  in  her  most  exalted  mood  ;  ^  these  must 
assist  the  eye  of  sense. 

In  Macpherson's  work  it  is  exactly  the  reverse — everything  is  defined, 
insulated,  dislocated,  deadened — yet  nothing  distinct." 

^  "Excursion,"  v.  500-514. 

*  This  seemed  flat  blasphemy  to  Shelley,  whose  idealism  was  mixed  with 
Byronic  misanthropy.  "  Nor  was  there  aught  the  world  contained  of 
which  he  could  approve." 

'  "  Prelude,"  xiv.  192.  Wordsworth's  psychology  is  very  interesting. 
"  Imagination"  is  for  him  ("Miscellaneous  Sonnets,"  xxxv.)  a  "glorious 
faculty,"  whose  function  it  is  to  elevate  the  more-than-reasoning  mind  ; 
"'tis  hers  to  pluck  the  amaranthine  flower  of  Faith,"  and  "colour  life's 
dark  cloud  with  orient  rays."     This  faculty  is  at  once  "  more  than  reason," 


3IO  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Such  is  the  discipline,  and  such  are  the  counsels,  by 
which  the  priest  of  Nature  must  prepare  himself  to 
approach  her  mysteries.  And  what  are  the  truths 
which  contemplation  revealed  to  him  ? 

The  first  step  on  the  way  that  leads  to  God  was  the 
sense  of  the  boundless^  growing  out  of  musings  on  the 
finite ;  and  with  it  the  conviction  that  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal  alone  can  be  our  being's  heart  and  home — "  we 
feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know."  ^  Then  came 
to  him — 

"The  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air. 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man  ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit,  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thoughts, 
And  rolls  through  all  things."  ^ 

The  worldliness  and  artificiality  which  set  us  out  of 
tune  with  all  this  is  worse  than  paganism.^  Then  this 
"  higher  Pantheism "  developed  into  the  sense  of  an 
all-pervading  Personality,  "  a  soul  that  is  the  eternity 
of  thought."  And  with  this  heightened  consciousness 
of  the  nature  of  God  came  also  a  deeper  knowledge  of 
his  own  personality,  a  knowledge  which  he  describes  in 
true  mystical  language  as  a  "  sinking  into  self  from 
thought  to  thought."  This  may  continue  till  man  can 
at    last   "  breathe   in    worlds    to   which   the   heaven    of 

and  identical  with  "  Reason  in  her  most  exalted  mood."     I  have  said  (p. 
21 )  that  "Mysticism  is  reason  applied  to  a  sphere  above  rationalism" 
and  this  appears  to  be  exactly  Wordsworth's  doctrine. 

^  "  Sonnets  on  the  River  Duddon,"  xxxiv. 

^  "  Lines  composed  above  Tintern  Abbey,"  95-102. 

*  "  Miscell.  Sonnets,"  xxxiii. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     311 

heavens   is   but   a  veil,"  and  perceive  "  the  forms  whose 

kingdom    is   where    time    and    space   are   not."      These 

last  Hnes  describe  a  state  analogous  to  the  o\/rt9  of  the 

Neoplatonists,  and  the  excessus  mentis  of  the  Catholic 

mystics.      At  this  advanced  stage  the  priest  of  Nature 

may   surrender    himself   to    ecstasy   without    mistrust. 

Of  such  minds  he  says — 

"The  highest  bliss 
That  flesh  can  know  is  theirs — the  consciousness 
Of  whom  they  are,  habitually  infused 
Through  every  image  and  through  every  thought, 
And  all  affections  by  communion  raised 
From  earth  to^  heaven,  from  human  to  divine  ;     ... 
Thence  cheerfulness  for  acts  of  daily  life, 
Emotions  which  best  foresight  need  not  fear, 
Most  worthy  then  of  trust  when  most  intense."  ^ 

There   are    many   other   places  where    he   describes 

this    "  bliss    ineffable,"    when    "  all   his   thoughts  were 

steeped  in  feeling,"  as  he  listened  to  the  song  which 

every  form  of  creature  sings  "  as  it  looks  towards  the 

uncreated  with  a  countenance  of  adoration  and  an  eye 

of  love,"  -  that  blessed  mood — 

"  In  which  the  affections  gently  lead  us  on, — 
Until,  the  breath  of  this  corporeal  frame, 
And  even  the  motion  of  our  human  blood 
Almost  suspended,  we  are  laid  asleep 
In  body,  and  become  a  living  soul  : 
While  with  an  eye  made  quiet  by  the  power 
Of  harmony,  and  the  deep  power  of  joy. 
We  see  into  the  life  of  things."  ^ 

Is   it   not   plain   that   the   poet  of  Nature  amid  the 

Cumberland   hills,  the   Spanish  ascetic   in  his  cell,  and 

the  Platonic  philosopher  in  his  library  or  lectOfe-room, 

have  been  climbing  the  same   mountain   from  different 

'  "  Prelude,"  xiv.  1 12-129.  "  "Prelude,"  ii.  396-418. 

"  "  Lines  composed  above  Tintern  Abbey,"  35-4S. 


312  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

sides  ?  The  paths  are  different,  but  the  prospect  from 
the  summit  is  the  same.  It  is  idle  to  speak  of  collusion 
or  insanity  in  the  face  of  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses, 
divided  by  every  circumstance  of  date,  nationality, 
creed,  education,  and  environment.  The  Carmelite 
friar  had  no  interest  in  confirming  the  testimony  of 
the  Alexandrian  professor ;  and  no  one  has  yet  had 
the  temerity  to  question  the  sanity  of  Wordsworth,  or 
of  Tennyson,  whose  description  of  the  Vision  in  his 
"  Ancient  Sage  "  is  now  known  to  be  a  record  of  per- 
sonal experience.  These  explorers  of  the  high  places 
of  the  spiritual  life  have  only  one  thing  in  common 
— they  have  observed  the  conditions  laid  down  once 
for  all  for  the  mystic  in  the  24th  Psalm,  "  Who  shall 
ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  ?  or  who  shall  stand  in 
His  holy  place  ?  He  that  hath  clean  "^hands  and  a 
pure  heart ;  who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto 
vanity,  nor  sworn  deceitfully.  He  shall  receive  the 
blessing  from  the  Lord,  and  righteousness  from  the 
God  of  his  salvation."  The  "  land  which  is  very  far 
off"  is  always  visible  to  those  who  have  climbed  the 
holy  mountain.  It  may  be  scaled  by  the  path  of 
prayer  and  mortification,  or  by  the  path  of  devout 
study  of  God's  handiwork  in  Natyre  (and  under  this 
head  I  would  wish  to  include  not  only  the  way  traced 
out  by  Wordsworth,  but  that  hitherto  less  trodden 
road  which  should  lead  the  physicist  to  God) ;  and, 
lastly,  by  the  path  of  consecrated  life  in  the  great 
world,  which,  as  it  is  the  most  exposed  to  temptations,  is 
perhaps  on  that  account  the  most  blessed  of  the  three.^ 

'  Wordsworth's   Mysticism    contains  a  few  subordinate    elements  which 
are  of  more  questionable  value.     The   "echoes  from  beyond  the  grave," 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     313 

It  has  been  said  of  Wordsworth,  as  it  has  been 
said  of  other  mystics,  that  he  averts  his  eyes 
"  from  half  of  human  fate."  Religious  writers  have 
explained  that  the  neglected  half  is  that  which  lies 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  Cross.  The  existence  of 
positive  evil  in  the  world,  as  a  great  fact,  and  the 
consequent  need  of  redemption,  is,  in  the  opinion  of 
many,  too  little  recognised  by  Wordsworth,  and  by 
Mysticism  in  general.  This  objection  has  been  urged 
both  from  the  scientific  and  from  the  religious  side. 
It  is  held  by  many  students  of  Nature  that  her  laws 
affirm  a  Pessimism  and  not  an  Optimism.  "  Red  in 
tooth  and  claw  with  ravine,"  she  shrieks  against  the 
creed  that  her  Maker  is  a  God  of  love.  The  only 
morality  which  she  inculcates  is  that  of  a  tiger  in  the 
jungle,   or   at   best    that   of  a  wolf-pack.     "  It    is   not 

which  "the  inward  ear"  sometimes  catches,  are  dear  to  most  of  us ;  hut 
we  must  not  be  too  confident  that  they  always  come  from  God.  Still  less 
can  we  be  sure  that  presentiments  are  "heaven-born  instincts."  Again, 
when  the  lonely  thinker  feels  himself  surrounded  by  "huge  and  mighty 
forms,  that  do  not  move  like  living  men,"  it  is  a  sign  that  the  "dim  and 
undetermined  sense  of  unknown  modes  of  being  "  has  begun  to  work  not 
quite  healthily  upon  his  imagination.  And  the  doctrine  of  pre-existence, 
which  appears  in  the  famous  Ode,  is  once  which  it  has  been  hitherto  im- 
possible to  admit  into  the  scheme  of  Christian  beliefs,  though  many 
Christian  thinkers  have  dallied  with  it.  Perhaps  the  true  lesson  of  the  Ode 
is  that  the  childish  love  of  nature,  beautiful  and  innocent  as  it  is,  has  to  die 
and  be  born  again  in  the  consciousness  of  the  grown  man.  That  Wordsworth 
himself  passed  through  this  experience,  we  know  from  other  passages  in 
his  writings.  In  his  case,  at  any  rate,  the  "  light  of  common  day"  was, 
for  a  time  at  least,  more  splendid  than  the  roseate  hues  of  his  childish 
imagination  can  possibly  have  been  ;  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for 
holding  the  gloomy  view  that  spiritual  insight  necessarily  becomes  dimmer 
as  we  travel  farther  from  our  cradles,  and  nearer  to  our  graves.  What 
fails  us  as  we  get  older  is  only  that  kind  of  vision  which  is  analogous  to  the 
"consolations"  often  spoken  of  by  monkish  mystics  as  the  privilege  of 
beginners.  Amiel  expresses  exactly  the  same  regret  as  Wordsworth  : 
"Shall  I  ever  enjoy  again  those  marvellous  reveries  of  past  days?  .  .  ." 
See  the  whole  paragraph  on  p.  32  of  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  translation. 


314  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

strange  (says  Lotze)  that  no  nature -religions  have 
raised  their  adherents  to  any  high  pitch  of  morality  or 
culture."  ^  The  answer  to  this  is  that  Nature  includes 
man  as  well  as  the  brutes,  and  the  merciful  and  moral 
man  as  well  as  the  savage.  Physical  science,  at  any 
rate,  can  exclude  nothing  from  the  domain  of  Nature. 
And  the  Christian  may  say  with  all  reverence  that 
Nature  includes,  or  rather  is  included  by,  Christ,  the 
Word  of  God,  by  whom  it  was  made.  And  the  Word 
was  made  flesh  to  teach  us  that  vicarious  suffering, 
which  we  see  to  be  the  law  of  Nature,  is  a  law  of  God, 
a  thing  not  foreign  to  His  own  life,  and  therefore  for 
all  alike  a  condition  of  perfection,  not  a  reductio  ad 
absurdum  of  existence.  The  reductio  ad  absurdum  is 
not  of  Nature,  but  of  selfish  irrdividualism,  which 
suffers  shipwreck  alike  in  objective  and  in  subjective 
religion.  It  is  precisely  because  the  shadow  of  the 
Cross  lies  across  the  world,  that  we  can  watch  Nature 
at  work  with  "  admiration,  hope,  and  love,"  instead  of 
with  horror  and  disgust. 

The  religious  objection  amounts  to  little  more  than 
that  Mysticism  has  not  succeeded  in  solving  the 
problem  of  evil,  which  no  philosophy  has  ever  attacked 
with  even  apparent  success.  It  is,  however,  with  some 
reason  that  this  difficulty  has  been  pressed  against 
the  mystics ;  for  they  are  bound  by  their  principles  to 
attempt  some  solution,  and  their  tendency  has  been  to 
attenuate  the  positive  character  of  evil  to  a  somewhat 

^  These  objections  are  pressed  by  Lotze,  and  not  only  by  avowed 
Pessimists.  Lotze  abhors  what  he  calls  "sentimental  symbolism "  because 
it  interferes  with  his  monadistic  doctrines.  I  venture  to  say  that  any  philo- 
sophy which  divides  man,  as  a  being  sui  generis,  from  the  rest  of  Nature, 
is  inevitably  landed  either  in  Acosmism  or  in  Manichean  Dualism. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     315 

dangerous  degree.  But  if  we  sift  the  charges  often 
brought  by  religious  writers  against  Mysticism,  we  shall 
generally  find  that  there  lies  at  the  bottom  of  their 
disapproval  a  residuum  of  mediaeval  dualism,  which 
wishes  to  see  in  Christ  the  conquering  invader  of  a 
hostile  kingdom.  In  practice,  at  any  rate,  the  great 
mystics  have  not  taken  lightly  the  struggle  with  the 
law  of  sin  in  our  members,  or  tried  to  "  heal  slightly  " 
the  wounds  of  the  soul.^ 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  later  mystics  have  been 
cheerful  and  optimistic.  But  those  who  have  found_a 
kingdom  in  their  own  minds,  and  who  have  enough 
strength  of  character  "  to  live  by  reason  and  not  by 
opinion,"  as  Whichcote  says  (in  a  maxim  which  was 
anticipated     by    that    arch  -  enemy     of    Mysticism — 

'  This  is  perhaps  the  best  place  to  notice  the  mystical  treatise  of  James 
Hinton,  entitled  Maji  and  his  Divelling-place^  which  is  chiefly  remarkable 
for  its  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  evil.  This  writer  pushes  to  an 
extremity  the  favourite  mystical  doctrine  that  we  surround  ourselves  with  a 
world  after  our  own  likeness,  and  considers  that  all  the  evil  which  we  see 
in  Nature  is  the  "projection  of  our  own  deadness."  Apart  from  the 
unlikelihood  of  a  theory  which  makes  man— "  the  roof  and  crown  of 
things " — the  only  diseased  and  discordant  element  in  the  universe,  the 
writer  lays  himself  open  to  the  fatal  rejoinder,  "Did  Christ,  then,  see  no 
sin  or  evil  in  the  world?"  The  doctrines  of  sacrifice  (vicarious  suffering) 
as  a  blessed  law  of  Nature  ("the  secret  of  the  universe  is  learnt  on 
Calvary"),  and  of  the  necessity  of  annihilating  "  the  self"  as  the  principle 
of  evil,  are  pressed  with  a  harsh  and  unnatural  rigour.  Our  blessed  Lord 
laid  no  such  yoke  upon  us,  nor  will  human  nature  consent  to  bear  it.  The 
"atonement"  of  the  world  by  love  is  much  better  delineated  by  R.  L. 
Nettleship,  in  a  passage  which  seems  to  me  to  exhibit  the  very  kernel  of 
Christian  Mysticism  in  its  social  aspect.  "  Suppose  that  all  human  beings 
felt  permanently  to  each  other  as  they  now  do  occasionally  to  those  they 
love  best.  All  the  pain  of  the  world  would  be  swallowed  up  in  doing 
good.  So  far  as  we  can  conceive  of  such  a  state,  it  would  be  one  in  which 
there  would  be  no  '  individuals '  at  all,  but  an  universal  being  in  and  for 
another ;  where  being  took  the  form  of  consciousness,  it  would  be  the 
consciousness  of  'another'  which  was  also  'oneself — a  common  con- 
sciousness.    Such  would  be  the  '  atonement '  of  the  world." 


3i6  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Epicurus),  are  likely  to  be  happier  than  other  men. 
And,  moreover,  Wordsworth  teaches  us  that  almost,  if  not 
quite,  every  evil  may  be  so  transmuted  by  the  "  faculty 
which  abides  within  the  soul,"  that  those  "  interpositions 
which  would  hide  and  darken  "  may  "  become  contin- 
gencies of  pomp,  and  serve  to  exalt  her  native  bright- 
ness " ;  even  as  the  moon,  "  rising  behind  a  thick  and 
lofty  grove,  turns  the  dusky  veil  into  a  substance 
glorious  as  her  own."  So  the  happy  warrior  is  made 
"  more  compassionate  "  by  the  scenes  -of  horror  which 
he  is  compelled  to  witness.  Whether  this  healing  and 
purifying  effect  of  sorrow  points  the  way  to  a  solution 
of  the  problem  of  evil  or  not,  it  is  a  high  and  noble 
faith,  the  one  and  only  consolation  which  we  feel  not 
to  be  a  mockery  when  we  are  in  great  trouble. 

These  charges,  then,  do  not  seem  to  form  a  grave 
indictment  against  the  type  of  Mysticism  of  which 
Wordsworth  is  the  best  representative.  But  he  does 
fall  short  of  the  ideal  held  up  by  St.  John  for  the 
Christian  mystic,  in  that  his  love  and  sympathy  for 
inanimate  Nature  were  (at  any  rate  in  his  poetry) 
deeper  than  for  humanity.  And  if  there  is  any  ac- 
cusation which  may  justly  be  brought  against  the 
higher  order  of  mystics  (as  opposed  to  representatives 
of  aberrant  types),  I  think  it  is  this :  that  they  have 
sought  and  found  God  in  their  own  souls  and  in 
Nature,  but  not  so  often  in  the  souls  of  other  men  and 
women  :  theirs  has  been  a  lonely  religion.  The  grand 
old  maxim,  "  Vides  fratrem,  vides  Dominum  tuum,"  has 
been  remembered  by  them  only  in  acts  of  charity. 
But  in  reality  the  love  of  human  beings  must  be  the 
shortest  road  to  the  vision  of  God.      Love,  as  St.  John 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     317 

teaches  us,  is  the  great  hierophant  of  the  Christian 
mysteries.  It  gives  wings  to  contemplation  and  Hghtens 
the  darkness  which  hides  the  face  of  God.  When  our 
emotions  are  deeply  stirred,  even  Nature  speaks  to  us 
with  voices  unheard  before ;  while  the  man  who  is 
without  human  affection  is  either  quite  unmoved  by 
her  influences,  or  misreads  all  her  lessons. 

The  spiritualising  power  of  human  love  is  the  re- 
deeming principle  in  many  sordid  lives,  Teutonic 
civilisation,  which  derives  half  of  its  restless  energy 
from  ideals  which  are  essentially  anti-Christian,  and 
tastes  which  are  radically  barbarous,  is  prevented  from 
sinking  into  moral  materialism  by  its  high  standard  of 
domestic  life.  The  sweet  influences  of  the  home  deprive 
even  mammon-worship  of  half  its  grossness  and  of  some 
fraction  of  its  evil.  As  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  men 
and  women  to  Christ,  natural  affection  is  without  a 
rival.  It  is  in  the  truest  sense  a  symbol  of  our  union 
with  Him  from  whom  every  family  in  heaven  and  earth 
is  named.  It  is  needless  to  labour  a  thesis  on  which 
nearly  all  are  agreed ;  but  it  may  be  worth  pointing 
out  that,  though  St.  Paul  felt  the  unique  value  of 
Christian  marriage  as  a  symbol  of  the  mystical  union 
of  Christ  and  the  Church,  this  truth  was  for  the  most 
part  lost  sight  of  by  the  mediaeval  mystics,  who  as 
monks  and  priests  were,  of  course,  cut  off  from  domestic 
life.  The  romances  of  true  love  which  the  Old  Testa- 
ment contains  were  treated  as  prophecies  wrapped  up 
in  riddling  language,  or  as  models  for  ecstatic  contem- 
plation. Wordsworth,  though  his  own  home  was  a 
happy  one,  does  not  supply  this  link  in  the  mystical 
chain.     The  most  noteworthy  attempt  to  do  so  is  to 


31 8  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

be  found  in  the  poetry  of  Robert  Browning,  whose 
Mysticism  is  in  this  way  complementary  to  that  of 
Wordsworth,^  He  resembles  Wordsworth  in  always 
trying  "  to  see  the  infinite  in  things,"  but  considers 
that  "  little  else  (than  the  development  of  a  soul)  is 
worth  study."  This  is  not  exactly  a  return  to  subject- 
ive Mysticism,  for  Browning  is  as  well  aware  as  Goethe 
that  if  "  a  talent  grows  best  in  solitude,"  a  character  is 
perfected  only  "in  the  stream  of  the  world."  With 
him  the  friction  of  active  life,  and  especially  the  ex- 
perience of  human  love,  are  necessary  to  realise  the 
Divine  in  man.  Quite  in  the  spirit  of  St.  John  he 
asks,  "  How  can  that  course  be  safe,  which  from  the 
first  produces  carelessness  to  human  love  ?  "  "  Do  not 
cut  yourself  from  human  weal  .  .  .  there  are  strange 
punishments  for  such  "  as  do  so.^  Solitude  is  the  death 
of  all  but  the  strongest  virtue,  and  in  Browning's  view 
it  also  deprives  us  of  the  strongest  inner  witness  to  the 
existence  of  a  loving  Father  in  heaven.  For  he  who 
"  finds  love  full  in  his  nature "  cannot  doubt  that  in 
this,  as  in  all  else,  the  Creator  must  far  surpass  the 
creature.^  Since,  then,  in  knowing  love  we  learn  to 
know  God,  and  since  the  object  of  life  is  to  know  God 
(this,  the  mystic's  minor  premiss,  is  taken  for  granted 
by  Browning),  it  follows  that  love  is  the  meaning  of 
life ;  and  he  who  finds  it  not  "  loses  what  he  lived  for, 
and  eternally  must  lose  it."  *  "  The  mightiness  of  love  is 
curled  "  inextricably  round  all  power  aud  beauty  in  the 
world.     The  worst  fate  that  can  befall  us  is  to  lead  "  a 

1  Charles  Kingsley  is  another  mystic  of  the  same  school. 

-  Browning,  Paracelsus,  Act  i.  ^  Browning,  "Saul,"  xvii. 

^Browning,  "Cristina." 


NATURE-MYSTICISM   AND  SYMBOLISM     319 

ghastly  smooth  life,  dead  at  heart."  ^  Especially  inter- 
esting is  the  passage  where  he  chooses  or  chances  upon 
Eckhart's  image  of  the  "  spark  "  in  the  centre  of  the 
soul,  and  gives  it  a  new  turn  in  accordance  with  his 
own  Mysticism — 

"  It  would  not  be  because  my  eye  grew  dim 
Thou  could'st  not  find  the  love  there,  thanks  to  Him 
Who  never  is  dishonoured  in  the  spark 
He  gave  us  from  His  fire  of  fires,  and  bade 
Remember  whence  it  sprang,  nor  be  afraid 
While  that  burns  on,  though  all  the  rest  grow  dark."  - 

Our  language  has  no  separate  words  to  distinguish 
Christian  love  (a'yd'rr'q — caritas)  from  sexual  love  (e/jtu? 
— aino}')  ;  "  charity "  has  not  established  itself  in  its 
wider  meaning.  Perhaps  this  is  not  to  be  regretted — 
at  any  rate  Browning's  poems  could  hardly  be  trans- 
lated into  any  language  in  which  this  distinction  exists. 
But  let  us  not  forget  that  the  ascetic  element  is  as 
strong  in  Browning  as  in  Wordsworth.  Love,  he 
seems  to  indicate,  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  that 
our  joys  may  be  "  three  parts  pain,"  for  "  where  pain 
ends  gain  ends  too."  ^ 

"  Not  yet  on  thee 
Shall  burst  the  future,  as  successive  zones 
Of  several  wonder  open  on  some  spirit 
Flying  secure  and  glad  from  heaven  to  heaven  ; 
But  thou  shalt  painfully  attain  to  joy, 
While  hope  and  fear  and  love  shall  keep  thee  man."^ 

He  even  carries  this  law  into  the  future  life,  and  will 
have  none  of  a   "joy   which   is  crystallised    for   ever." 

^  Browning,  "  Christmas  Eve  and  Easter  Day,"  xxx.,  xxxiii. 
-  Browning,  "  Any  Wife  to  any  Husband." 

•'  Compare    Plato's    well-known    sentence :    5t'    oX-^rihtivwv    koX    oSvvuiv 
yiyyerai  t)  CxpiXeta,   ov  yap  olov  re  dWus  aSiKia^  airaWaTreadai. 
■*  Browning,  Parace/sus. 


320  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

Felt  imperfection  is  a  proof  of  a  higher  birthright :  ^  if 
we  have  arrived  at  the  completion  of  our  nature  as 
men,  then  "  begins  anew  a  tendency  to  God,"  This 
faith  in  unending  progress  as  the  law  of  life  is  verjr 
characteristic  of  our  own  age,'-^  It  assumes  a  question- 
able shape  sometimes ;  but  Browning's  trust  in  real 
success  through  apparent  disappointments — a  trust 
even  based  on  the  consciousness  of  present  failure — 
is  certainly  one  of  the  noblest  parts  of  his  religious 
philosophy. 

I  have  decided  to  end  my  survey  of  Christian 
Mysticism  with  these  two  English  poets.  It  would 
hardly  be  appropriate,  in  this  place,  to  discuss 
Carlyle's  doctrine  of  symbols,  as  the  "  clothing "  of 
religious  and  other  kinds  of  truth.  His  philosophy 
is  wanting  in  some  of  the  essential  features  of 
Mysticism,  and  can  hardly  be  called  Christian  with- 
out stretching  the  word  too  far.  And  Emerson, 
when  he  deals  with  religion,  is  a  very  unsafe  guide. 
The  great  American  mystic,  whose  beautiful  char- 
acter was  as  noble  a  gift  to  humanity  as  his  writings, 
is  more  liable  than  any  of  those  whom  we  have 
described  to  the  reproach  of  having  turned  his  back 
on  the  dark  side  of  life.  Partly  from  a  fastidious- 
ness which  could  not  bear  even  to  hear  of  bodily 
ailments,  partly  from  the  natural  optimism  of  the 
,dweller  in  a  new  country,  and  partly  because  he 
made  a  principle  of  maintaining  an  unruffled  cheer- 
fulness and  serenity,  he  shut  his  eyes  to  pain,  death, 

^  Compare  Pascal :  "  No  one  is  discontented  at  not  being  a  king,  except 
a  discrowned  king." 

-  It  is  almost  as  prominent  in  Tennyson  as  in  Browning  :  "  Give  her  the 
wages  of  going  on,  and  not  to  die,"  is  his  wisli  for  the  human  soul. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     321 

and  sin,  even  more  resolutely  than  did  Goethe.  The 
optimism  which  is  built  on  this  foundation  has  no 
message  of  comfort  for  the  stricken  heart.  To  say 
that  "  evil  is  only  good  in  the  making,"  is  to  repeat 
an  ancient  and  discredited  attempt  to  solve  the  great 
enigma.  And  to  assert  that  perfect  justice  is  meted 
out  to  individuals  in  this  world,  is  surely  mere 
dreaming.  Moreover,  we  can  hardly  acquit  him  of 
playing  with  pantheistic  Mysticism  of  the  Oriental 
type,  without  seeing,  or  without  caring,  whither  such 
speculations  logically  lead.  "  Within  man,"  he  tells 
us,  "  is  the  soul  of  the  whole,  the  wise  silence,  the 
universal  beauty,  to  which  every  part  and  particle 
is  equally  related — the  eternal  One."  This  is  genuine 
Pantheism,  and  should  carry  with  it  the  doctrine  that 
all  actions  are  equally  good,  bad,  or  indifferent. 
Emerson  says  that  his  wife  kept  him  from  anti- 
nomianism  ;  but  this  is  giving  up  the  defence  of  his 
philosophy.  He  also  differs  from  Christianity,  and 
agrees  with  many  Hegelians,  in  teaching  that  God, 
"  the  Over-Soul,"  only  attains  to  self-consciousness  in 
man ;  and  this,  combined  with  his  denial  of  degrees 
in  Divine  immanence,  leads  him  to  a  self-deification 
of  an  arrogant  and  shocking  kind,  such  as  we  find 
in  the  Persian  Sufis,  and  in  some  heretical  mystics 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  "  I,  the  imperfect,  adore  my 
own  Perfect.  I  am  receptive  of  the  great  soul.  I 
become  a  transparent  eyeball.  I  am  nothing.  I 
see  all.  The  currents  of  the  universal  Being  circulate 
through  me.  I  am  part  of  God " ;  and  much  more 
to  the  same  effect.  This  is  not  the  language  of  those 
who  have  travelled  up  the  mystical  ladder,  instead  of 
21 


322  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

only  writing  about  it.  It  is  far  more  objectionable  than 
the  bold  phrases  about  deification  which  I  quoted  in 
my  fifth  Lecture  from  the  fourteenth  century  mystics ; 
because  with  them  the  passage  into  the  Divine  glory 
is  the  final  reward,  only  to  be  attained  "  by  all 
manner  of  exercises  " ;  while  for  Emerson  it  seems  to 
be  a  state  already  existing,  which  we  can  realise 
by  a  mere  act  of  intellectual  apprehension.  And  the 
phrase,  "  Man  is  a  part  of  God," — as  if  the  Divine 
Spirit  were  divided  among  the  organs  which  express 
its  various  activities, — has  been  condemned  by  all  the 
great  speculative  mystics,  from  Plotinus  downwards. 
Emerson  is  perhaps  at  his  best  when  he  applies  his 
idealism  to  love  and  friendship.  The  spiritualising 
and  illuminating  influence  of  pure  comradeship  has 
never  been  better  or  more  religiously  set  forth.  And 
though  it  is  necessary  to  be  on  our  guard  against 
the  very  dangerous  tendency  of  some  of  his  teaching, 
we  shall  find  much  to  learn  from  the  brave  and  serene 
philosopher  whose  first  maxim  was,  "  Come  out  into 
the  azure ;  love  the  day,"  and  who  during  his  whole 
life  fixed  his  thoughts  steadily  on  whatsoever  things 
are  pure,  lovely,  noble,  and  of  good  report. 

The  constructive  task  which  lies  before  the  next 
century  is,  if  I  may  say  so  without  presumption,  to 
spiritualise  science,  as  morality  and  art  have  already 
been  spiritualised.  The  vision  of  God  should  appear 
to  us  as  a  triple  star  of  truth,  beauty,  and  goodness.-^ 

1  I  had  written  these  words  before  the  publication  of  Principal  Caird's 
Sermons,  which  contain,  in  my  judgment,  the  most  powerful  defence  of 
what  I  have  called  Christian  Mysticism  that  has  appeared  since  William 
Law.  On  p.  14  he  says  :  "  Of  all  things  good  and  fair  and  holy  there  is  a 
spiritual  cognisance  which  precedes  and  is  independent  of  that  knowledge 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     323 

These  are  the  three  objects  of  all  human  aspiration  ; 
and  our  hearts  will  never  be  at  peace  till  all  three 
alike  rest  in  God.  Beauty  is  the  chief  mediator 
between  the  good  and  the  true ;  ^  and  this  is  why  the 
great  poets  have  been  also  prophets.  But  Science 
at  present  lags  behind  ;  she  has  not  found  her  God  ; 
and  to'  this  is  largely  due  the  "  unrest  of  the  age." 
Much  has  already  been  done  in  the  right  direction 
by  divines,  philosophers,  and  physicists,  and  more 
still,  perhaps,  by  the  great  poets,  who  have  striven 
earnestly  to  see  the  spiritual  background  which  lies 
behind  the  abstractions  of  materialistic  science.  But 
much  yet  remains  to  be  done.  We  may  agree  with 
Hinton  that  "  Positivism  bears  a  new  Platonism  in 
its  bqsom " ;  but  the  child  has  not  yet  come  to  the 
birth.' 

which  the  understanding  conveys."  He  shows  how  in  the  contemplation 
oPnature  it  is  "  by  an  organ  deeper  than  intellectual  thought"  that  "the 
revelation  of  material  beauty  flows  in  upon  the  soul."  "And  in  like 
manner  there  is  an  apprehension  of  God  and  Divine  things  which  comes 
upon  the  spirit  as  a  living  reality  which  it  immediately  and  intuitively 
perceives."  .  .  .  "There  is  a  capacity  of  the  soul,  by  which  the  truths  of 
religion  may  be  apprehended  and  appropriated."  See  the  whole  sermon, 
entitled,   IV/iat  is  Religion  ?  and  many  other  parts  of  the  book. 

^  Cf.  Ilegel  {Philosophy  of  Religion,  vol.  ii.  p.  8) :  "  The  Beautiful  is 
essentially  the  Spiritual  making  itself  known  sensuously,  presenting  itself 
in  sensuous  concrete  existence,  but  in  such  a  manner  that  that  existence  is 
wholly  and  entirely  permeated  by  the  Spiritual,  so  that  the  sensuous  is  not 
independent,  but  has  its  meaning  solely  and  exclusively  in  the  Spiritual 
and  through  the  Spiritual,  and  exhibits  not  itself,  but  the  Spiritual." 

-  Some  reference  ought  perhaps  to  be  made  to  Drummond's  Natural 
J.aw  in  the  Spiritual  World.  But  ^fysticism  seeks  rather  to  find  spiritual 
law  in  the  natural  worjd — and  some  better  law  than  Diummond's  Calvin- 
ism. (And  I  cannot  help  thinking  that,  though  Evolution  explains  much 
and  contradicts  nothing  in  Christianity,  it  is  in  danger  of  proving  an  ignis 
fatttus  to  many,  especially  to  those  who  are  inclined  to  idealistic  pantheism. 
There  can  be  no  progress  or  development  in  God,  and  the  cosmic  process 
as  we  know  it  cannot  have  a  higher  degree  of  reality  than  the  categories  of 
time  and  place  under  which  it  appears.     As  for  the  millennium  of  per- 


324  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Meanwhile,  the  special  work  assigned  to  the  Church 
of  England  would  seem  to  be  the  development  of  a 
Johannine  Christianity,  which  shall  be  both  Catholic 
and  Evangelical  without  being  either  Roman  or  Pro- 
testant. It  has  been  abundantly  proved  that  neither 
Romanism  nor  Protestantism,  regarded  as  alternatives, 
possesses  enough  of  the  truth  to  satisfy  the  religious 
needs  of  the  present  day.  But  is  it  not  probable 
that,  as  the  theology  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  acted  as 
a  reconciling  principle  between  the  opposing  sections 
in  the  early  Church,  so  it  may  be  found  to  contain 
the  teaching  which  is  most  needed  by  both  parties 
in  our  own  communion  ?  In  St.  John  and  St.  Paul 
we  find  all  the  principles  of  a  sound  and  sober 
Christian  Mysticism  ;  and  it  is  to  these  "  fresh 
springs "  of  the  spiritual  life  that  we  must  turn,  if 
the  Church  is  to  renew  her  youth. 
-  I  attempted  in  my  second  Lecture  to  analyse  the 
main  elements  of  Christian  Mysticism  as  found  in  St. 
Paul  and  St.  John.  But  since  in  the  later  Lectures  I 
have  been  obliged  to  draw  from  less  pure  sources,  and 
since,  moreover,  I  am  most  anxious  not  to  leave  the 
impression  that  I  have  been  advocating  a  vague  spiritu- 
ality tempered  by  rationalism,  I  will  try  in  a  few  words 
to  define  my  position  apologetically,  though  I  am  well 
aware  that  it  is  a  hazardous  and  difficult  task. 

The  principle,  "  Cuique  in  sua  arte  credendum  est," 
applies  to  those  who  have  been  eminent  for  personal 
holiness  as  much  as  to  the  leaders  in  any  other  branch 

fected  humanity  on  this  earth,  which  some  Positivists  and  others  dream 
of, — Christianity  has  nothing  to  say  against  it,  but  science  has  a  great  deal.) 
See  below,  p.  32S. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     325 

of  excellence.  Even  in  dealing  with  arts  which  are 
akin  to  each  other,  we  do  not  invite  poets  to  judge  of 
music,  or  sculptors  of  architecture.  We  need  not  then 
be  disturbed  if  we  occasionally  find  men  illustrious 
in  other  fields,  who  are  as  insensible  to  religion  as  to 
poetry.  Our  reverence  for  the  character  and  genius  of 
Charles  Darwin  need  not  induce  us  to  lay  aside  either 
our  Shakespeare  or  our  New  Testament.i  The  men 
to  whom  we  naturally  turn  as  our  best  authorities  in 
spiritual  matters,  are  those  who  seem  to  have  been 
endowed  with  an  "  anima  naturaliter  Christiana,"  and 
who  have  devoted  their  whole  lives  to  the  service  of 
God  and  the  imitation  of  Christ. 

Now  it  will  be  found  that  these  men  of  acknowledged 
and  pre-eminent  saintliness  agree  very  closely  in  what 
they  tell  us  about  God.  They  tell  us  that  they  have 
arrived  gradually  at  an  unshakable  conviction,  not 
based  on  inference  but  on  immediate  experience,  that 
God  is  a  Spirit  with  whom  the  human  spirit  can  hold 
intercourse ;  that  in  Him  meet  all  that  they  can 
imagine  of  goodness,  truth,  and  beauty ;  that  they  can 
see  His  footprints  everywhere  in  nature,  and  feel  His 
presence  within  them  as  the  very  life  of  their  life,  so 
that  in  proportion  as  they  come  to  themselves  they 
come   to    Him.      They  tell  us  that  what  separates  us 

^  In  the  Life  of  Charles  Darwin  there  is  an  interesting  letter,  in  which  he 
laments  the  gradual  decay  of  his  taste  for  poetry,  as  his  mind  became  a 
mere  "machine  for  grinding  out  general  laws  "  from  a  mass  of  observations. 
The  decay  of  religious  feeling  in  many  men  of  high  character  may  be 
accounted  for  in  the  same  way.  The  really  great  man  is  conscious  of  the 
sacrifice  which  he  is  making.  "  It  is  an  accursed  evil  to  a  man,"  Darwin 
wrote  to  Hooker,  "to  become  so  absorbed  in  any  subject  as  I  am  in  mine." 
The  common-place  man  is  itot  conscious  of  it:  he  obtains  his  heart's  desire, 
if  he  works  hard  enough,  and  God  sends  leanness  withal  into  his  soul. 


326  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

from  Him  and  from  happiness  is,  first,  self-seeking  in  all 
its  forms  ;  and,  secondly,  sensuality  in  all  its  forms  ;  that 
these  are  the  ways  of  darkness  and  death,  which  hide 
from  us  the  face  of  God  ;  while  the  path  of  the  just  is 
like  a  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto 
the  perfect  day.  As  they  have  toiled  up  the  narrow 
way,  the  Spirit  has  spoken  to  them  of  Christ,  and  has 
enlightened  the  eyes  of  their  understandings,  till  they 
have  at  least  begun  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  knowledge,  and  to  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness 
of  God. 

So  far,  the  position  is  unassailable.     But  the  scope 
of  the  argument  has,  of  course,  its  fixed  limits.     The 
inner    light    can    only  testify  to    spiritual    truths.      It 
always  speaks  in  the  present  tense  ;  it  cannot  guarantee 
any  historical  event,  past  or  future.      It  cannot  guaran- 
tee either  the  Gospel  history  or  a  future  judgment.      It 
can  tell  us  that  Christ  is  risen,  and  that  He  is  alive  for 
evermore,  but  not  that   He  rose  again  the  third  day. 
It  can  tell  us  that  the  gate  of  everlasting  life  is  open, 
but   not   that   the   dead   shall   be   raised  incorruptible. 
We  have  other  faculties  for  investigating  the  eviden.ce 
for   past   events ;  the   inner   light   cannot  certify  them 
immediately,  though  it  can  give  a  powerful  support  to 
the    external    evidence.       For    though   we    are    in    no 
position    to     dogmatise     about     the    relations    of    the 
temporal  to  the  eternal,  one  fact  does  seem   to  stand 
out, — that  the   two   are,  for  us,  bound    together.      If, 
when  we  read   the   Gospels,  "  the   Spirit   itself  beareth 
witness   with   our   spirit "  that  here   are   the  words  of 
eternal  life,  and  the  character  which  alone  in  history  is 
absolutely  flawless,  then  it  is  natural  for  us  to  believe 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM    327 

that  there  has  been,  at  that  point  of  time,  an  Incarna- 
tion of  the  Word  of  God  Himself.  That  the  revelation 
of  Christ  is  an  absolute  revelation,  is  a  dogmatic  state- 
ment which,  strictly  speaking,  only  the  Absolute  could 
make.  What  we  mean  by  it  is  that  after  two  thousand 
years  we  are  unable  to  conceive  of  its  being  ever  super- 
seded in  any  particular.  And  if  anyone  finds  this 
inadequate,  he  may  be  invited  to  explain  what  higher 
degree  of  certainty  is  within  our  reach.  With  regard  to 
the  future  life,  the  same  consideration  may  help  us  to 
understand  why  the  Church  has  clung  to  the  belief  in  a 
literal  second  coming  of  Christ  to  pronounce  the  dooms 
of  all  mankind.  But  our  Lord  Himself  has  taught  us 
that  in  "  that  day  and  that  hour "  lies  hidden  a  more 
inscrutable  mystery  than  even  He  Himself,  as  man, 
could  reveal. 

There  is  one  other  point  on  which  I  wish  to  make 
my  position  clear.  The  fact  that  human  love  or 
sympathy  is  the  guide  who  conducts  us  to  the  heart 
of  life,  revealing  to  us  God  and  Nature  and  ourselves,  is 
proof  that  part  of  our  life  is  bound  up  with  the  life  of 
the  world,  and  that  if  we  live  in  these  our  true  relations 
we  shall  not  entirely  die  so  long  as  human  beings 
remain  alive  upon  this  earth.  The  progress  of  the 
race,  the  diminution  of  sin  and  miseiy,  the  advancing 
kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth, — these  are  matters  in 
which  we  have  a  personal  interest.  The  strong  desire 
that  we  feel — and  the  best  of  us  feel  it  most  strongly 
— that  the  human  race  may  be  better,  wiser,  and 
happier  in  the  future  than  they  are  now  or  have  been 
in  the  past,  is  neither  due  to  a  false  association  of 
ideas,  nor  to  pure  unselfishness.      There  is  a  sense  in 


328  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

which  death  would  not  be  the  end  of  everything  for  us, 
even  though  in  this  Hfe  only  we  had  hope  in  Christ. 

But  when  this  comforting  and  inspiring  thought  is 
made  to  form  the  basis  of  a  new  Chiliasm — a  belief  in 
a  millennium  of  perfected  humanity  on  this  earth,  and 
when  this  belief  is  substituted  for  the  Christian  belief 
in  an  eternal  life  beyond  our  bourne  of  time  and  place, 
it  is  necessary  to  protest  that  this  belief  entirely  fails 
to  satisfy  the  legitimate  hopes  of  the  human  race,  that 
it  is  bad  philosophy,  and  that  it  is  flatly  contrary  to 
what  science  tells  us  of  the  destiny  of  the  world  and  of 
mankind.  The  human  spirit  beats  against  the  bars  of 
space  and  time  themselves,  and  could  never  be  satisfied 
with  any  earthly  Utopia.  Our  true  home  must  be  in 
some  higher  sphere  of  existence,  above  the  contradic- 
tions which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  believe  that 
time  and  space  are  ultimate  realities,  and  out  of  reach 
of  the  inevitable  catastrophe  which  the  next  glacial  age 
must  bring  upon  the  human  race.^  This  world  of 
space  and  time  is  to  resemble  heaven  as  far  as  it  can  ; 
but  a  fixed  limit  is  set  to  the  amount  of  the  Divine 
plan  which  can  be  realised  under  these  conditions. 
Our  hearts  tell  us  of  a  higher  form  of  existence,  in 
which  the  doom  of  death  is  not  merely  deferred  but 
abolished.  This  eternal  world  we  here  see  through  a 
glass  darkly :  at  best  we  can  apprehend  but  the  out- 

^  The  metaphysical  problem  about  the  reality  of  time  in  relation  to 
evolution  is  so  closely  bound  up  with  speculative  Mysticism,  that  I  have 
been  obliged  to  state  my  own  opinion  upon  it.  It  is,  of  course,  one  of  the 
vexed  questions  of  philosophy  at  the  present  time  ;  and  I  could  not  afford 
the  space,  even  if  I  had  the  requisite  knowledge  and  ability,  to  argue  it. 
The  best  discussion  of  it  that  I  know  is  in  M  'Taggart's  Studies  in  Hegelian 
Dialectic,  pp.  159-202.     Cf.  note  on  p.  23. 


NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     329 

skirts  of  God's  ways,  and  hear  a  small  whisper  of  His 
voice ;  but  our  conviction  is  that,  though  our  earthly 
house  be  dissolved  (as  dissolved  it  must  be),  we  have  a 
home  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.  In 
this  hope  we  may  include  all  creation  ;  and  trust  that 
in  some  way  neither  more  nor  less  incomprehensible 
than  the  deliverance  which  we  expect  for  ourselves,  all 
God's  creatures,  according  to  their  several  capacities, 
may  be  set  free  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  and 
participate  in  the  final  triumph  over  death  and  sin. 
Most  firmly  do  I  believe  that  this  faith  in  immortality, 
though  formless  and  inpalpable  as  the  air  we  breathe, 
and  incapable  of  definite  presentation  except  under 
inadequate  and  self-contradictory  symbols,  is  neverthe- 
less enthroned  in  the  centre  of  our  being,  and  that 
those  who  have  steadily  set  their  affections  on  things 
above,  and  lived  the  risen  life  even  on  earth,  receive  in 
themselves  an  assurance  which  robs  death  of  its  sting, 
and  is  an  earnest  of  a  final  victory  over  the  grave. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  Mysticism,  even  in  its  widest 
sense,  is,  or  can  ever  be,  the  whole  of  Christianity. 
Every  religion  must  have  an  institutional  as  well  as  a 
mystical  element.  Just  as,  if  the  feeling  of  immediate 
communion  with  God  has  faded,  we  shall  have  a  dead 
Church  worshipping  "  a  dead  Christ,"  as  Fox  the 
Quaker  said  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  his  day;  so, 
if  the  seer  and  prophet  expel  the  priest,  there  will  be 
no  discipline  and  no  cohesion.  Still,  at  the  present 
time,  the  greatest  need  seems  to  be  that  we  should 
return  to  the  fundamentals  of  spiritual  religion.  We 
cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  both  the  old  seats 
of  authority,  the   infallible    Church   and   the  infallible 


330  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

book,  are  fiercely  assailed,  and  that  our  faith  needs 
reinforcements.  These  can  only  come  from  the  depths 
of  the  religious  consciousness  itself;  and  if  summoned 
from  thence,  they  will  not  be  found  wanting.  The 
"  impregnable  rock  "  is  neither  an  institution  nor  a  book, 
but  a  life  or  experience.  Faith,  which  is  an  affirmation 
of  the  basal  personality,  is  its  own  evidence  and  justi- 
fication. Under  normal  conditions,  it  will  always  be 
strongest  in  the  healthiest  minds.  There  is  and  can 
be  no  appeal  from  it.  If,  then,  our  hearts,  duly  pre- 
pared for  the  reception  of  the  Divine  Guest,  at  length 
say  to  us,  "  This  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind, 
now  I  see,"  we  may,  in  St.  John's  words,  "  have  con- 
fidence towards  God." 

The  objection  may  be  raised — "  But  these  beliefs 
change,  and  merely  reflect  the  degree  of  enlightenment 
or  its  opposite,  which  every  man  has  reached."  The 
conscience  of  the  savage  tells  him  emphatically  that 
there  are  some  things  which  he  must  not  do  ;  and  blind 
obedience  to  this  "  categorical  imperative  "  has  produced 
not  only  all  the  complex  absurdities  of  "  taboo,"  but 
crimes  like  human  sacrifice,  and  faith  in  a  great 
many  things  that  are  not.  "  Perhaps  we  are  leaving 
behind  the  theological  stage,  as  we  have  already  left 
behind  those  superstitions  of  savagery."  Now  the 
study  of  primitive  religions  does  seem  to  me  to 
prove  the  danger  of  resting  religion  and  morality  on 
unreasoning  obedience  to  a  supposed  revelation  ;  but 
that  is  not  my  position.  The  two  forces  which  kill 
mischievous  superstitions  are  the  knowledge  of  nature, 
and  the  moral  sense ;  and  we  are  quite  ready  to  give 
both    free   play,   confident    that   both   come    from    the 


/ 

NATURE-MYSTICISM  AND  SYMBOLISM     331 

living  Word  of  God.  The  fact  that  a  revelation  is 
progressive  is  no  argument  that  it  is  not  Divine :  it  is, 
in  fact,  only  when  the  free  current  of  the  religious  life 
is  dammed  up  that  it  turns  into  a  swamp,  and  poisons 
human  society.  Of  course  we  must  be  ready  to  admit 
with  all  humility,  that  our  notions  of  God  are  probably 
unworthy  and  distorted  enough ;  but  that  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  follow  the  light  which  we  have, 
or  mistrust  it  on  the  ground  that  it  is  "  too  good  to 
be  true." 

Nor  would  it  be  fair  to  say  that  this  argument 
makes  religion  depend  merely  on  feeling.  A  theology 
based  on  mere  feeling  is  (as  Hegel  said)  as  much  con- 
trary to  revealed  religion  as  to  rational  knowledge. 
The  fact  that  God  is  present  to  our  feeling  is  no  proof 
that  He  exists ;  our  feelings  include  imaginations 
which  have  no  reality  corresponding  to  them.  No,  it 
is  not  feeling,  but  the  heart  or  reason  (whichever  term  we 
prefer),  which  speaks  with  authority.  By  the  heart  or 
reason  I  mean  the  whole  personality  acting  in  concord, 
an  abiding  mood  of  thinking,  willing,  and  feeling.  The 
life  of  the  spirit  perhaps  begins  with  mere  feeling,  and 
perhaps  will  be  consummated  in  mere  feeling,  when 
"  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away " ;  but 
during  its  struggles  to  enter  into  its  full  inheritance, 
it  gathers  up  into  itself  the  activities  of  all  the  faculties, 
which  act  harmoniously  together  in  proportion  as  the 
organism  to  which  they  belong  is  in  a  healthy  state. 

Once  more,  this  reliance  on  the  inner  light  does  not 
mean  that  every  man  must  be  his  own  prophet,  his 
own  priest,  and  his  own  saviour.  The  individual  is  not 
independent   of  the    Church,    nor   the    Church   of  the 


332  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

historical  Christ.  But  the  Church  is  a  living  body, 
and  the  Incarnation  and  Atonement  are  living  facts, 
still  in  operation.  They  are  part  of  the  eternal  counsels 
of  God  ;  and  whether  they  are  enacted  in  the  Abyss  of 
the  Divine  Nature,  or  once  for  all  in  their  fulness  on 
the  stage  of  history,  or  in  miniature,  as  it  were,  in  your 
soul  and  mine,  the  process  is  the  same,  and  the  tre- 
mendous importance  of  those  historical  facts  which  our 
creeds  affirm  is  due  precisely  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
not  unique  and  isolated  portents,  but  the  supreme 
manifestation  of  the  grandest  and  most  universal 
laws. 

These  considerations  may  well  have  a  calming 
and  reassuring  influence  upon  those  who,  from  what- 
ever cause,  are  troubled  by  religious  doubts.  The 
foundation  of  God  standeth  sure,  having  this  seal, 
The  Lord  knoweth,  and  is  known  by,  them  that  are 
His.  But  we  must  not  expect  that  "  religious  diffi- 
culties "  will  ever  cease.  Every  truth  that  we  know  is 
but  the  husk  of  a  deeper  truth ;  and  it  may  be  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  still  many  things  to  say  to  us, 
which  we  cannot  bear  now.  Each  generation  and 
each  individual  has  his  own  problem,  which  has  never 
been  set  in  exactly  the  same  form  before :  we  must  all 
work  out  our  own  salvation,  for  it  is  God  who  worketh 
in  us.  If  we  have  realised  the  meaning  of  these  words 
of  St.  Paul,  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  quote  so' 
often  in  thes^  Lectures,  we  cannot  doubt  that,  though 
we  now  see  through  a  glass  darkly,  and  know  only  in 
part,  we  shall  one  day  behold  our  Eternal  Father  face 
to  face,  and  know  Him  even  as  we  are  known. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX   A 

Definitions  of  "Mysticism"  and  "Mystical  Theology" 

The  following  definitions  are  given  only  as  specimens.  The 
list  might  be  made  much  longer  by  quoting  from  other 
Roman  Catholic  theologians,  but  their  definitions  for  the  most 
part  agree  closely  enough  with  those  which  I  have  transcribed 
from  Corderius,  John  a  Jesu  Maria,  and  Gerson. 

1.  Corderius.  "Theologia  mystica  est  sapientia  experi- 
mentalis,  Dei  affectiva,  divinitus  infusa,  qus  mentem  ab  omni 
inordinatione  puram  per  actus  supernaturales  fidei  spei  et 
caritatis  cum  Deo  intime  coniungit.  .  .  .  Mystica  theologia,  si 
vim  nominis  attendas,  designat  quandam  sacram  et  arcanam  de 
Deo  divinisque  rebus  notitiam." 

2.  Joh7i  a  Jesu  Maria.  "  [Theologia  mystica]  est  caelestis 
qusedam  Dei  notitia  per  unionem  voluntatis  Deo  inhaerentis 
elicita  vel  lumine  cselitus  immisso  producta." 

3.  Bojiaventura  (adopted  also  by  Gerson).  "  Est  animi 
extensio  in  Deum  per  amoris  desiderium." 

4.  Gerson.  "  Theologia  mystica  est  motio  anagogica  in  Deum 
per  amorem  fervidum  et  purum.  Aliter  sic  :  Theologia  mystica 
est  experimentalis  cognitio  habita  de  Deo  per  amoris  unitivi 
complexum.  Aliter  sic :  est  sapientia,  id  est  sapida  notio 
habita  de  Deo,  dum  ei  supremus  apex  affcctivee  potentice 
rationalis  per  amorem  iungitur  et  unitur." 

5.  Scarafnelli.  "  La  theologia  mistica  esperimentale,  secondo 
il  suo  atto  principale  e  piu  proprio,  e  una  notizia  pura  di  Dio 
che  1'  anima  d'ordinario  riceve  nella  caligine  luminosa,  o  per 
di  meglio  nel  chiaro  oscuro  d'  un'  alta  contemplazione,  insieme 
con  un  amore  esperimentale  si  intimo,  che  la  fa  perdere  tutta 
a  se  stessa  per  unirla  e  transformarla  in  Dio." 


336  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

6.  Ribet.  "  La  theologie  mystique,  au  point  de  vue  subjectif 
et  experimental,  nous  semble  pouvoir  etre  definie :  une 
attraction  surnaturelle  et  passive  de  I'ame  vers  Dieu,  prove- 
nant  d'une  illumination  et  d'un  embrasement  interieurs,  qui 
previennent  la  reflexion,  surpassent  I'effort  humain,  et  pouvent 
avoir  sur  le  corps  un  retentissement  merveilleux  et  irresistible. 
.  .  .  Au  point  de  vue  doctrinal  objectif,  la  mystique  peut  se 
definir :  la  science  qui  traite  des  phenomenes  surnaturels,  qui 
preparent,  accompagnent,  et  suivent  I'attraction  passive  des 
ames  vers  Dieu  et  par  Dieu,  c'est  a  dire  la  contemplation  divine ; 
qui  les  coordonne  et  les  justifie  par  I'autorite  de  I'Ecriture, 
des  docteurs  et  de  la  raison  ;  les  distingue  des  phenomenes 
paralleles  dus  a  I'action  de  Satan,  et  des  faits  analogues 
purement  naturels ;  enfin,  qui  trace  des  regies  pratiques  pour 
la  conduite  des  ames  dans  ces  ascensions  sublimes  mais 
perilleuses." 

7.  EAbhe  Migne.  "  La  mystique  est  la  science  d'etat  sur- 
naturel  de  I'ame  humaine  manifeste  dans  le  corps  et  dans  I'ordre 
des  choses  visibles  par  des  effets  egalement  surnaturels." 

In  these  scholastic  and  modern  Roman  Catholic  definitions 
we  may  observe  {a)  that  the  earlier  definitions  supplement 
without  contradicting  each  other,  representing  different  aspects 
of  Mysticism,  as  an  experimental  science,  as  a  living  sacrifice  of 
the  will,  as  an  illumination  from  above,  and  as  an  exercise  of 
ardent  devotion ;  {b)  that  symbolic  or  objective  Mysticism  is 
not  recognised ;  (c)  that  the  sharp  distinction  between  natural 
and  supernatural,  which  is  set  up  by  the  scholastic  mystics, 
carries  with  it  a  craving  for  physical  "  mystical  phenomena  " 
to  support  the  belief  in  supernatural  interventions.  These 
miracles,  though  not  mentioned  in  the  earlier  definitions,  have 
come  to  be  considered  an  integral  part  of  Mysticism,  so  that 
Migne  and  Ribet  include  them  in  their  definitions ;  {d)  lastly, 
that  those  who  take  this  view  of  "la  mystique  divine"  are 
constrained  to  admit  by  the  side  of  true  mystical  facts  a  parallel 
class  of  "  contrefagons  diaboliques." 

8.  Vo7i  Harfmatm.  "  Mysticism  is  the  filling  of  the  con- 
sciousness with  a  content  (feeling,  thought,  desire),  by  an 
involuntary  emergence  of  the  same  out  of  the  unconscious." 

Von  Hartmann's  hypostasis  of  the  Unconscious  has  been 


APPENDIX  A  337 

often  and  justly  criticised.  But  his  chapter  on  Mysticism  is  of 
great  value.  He  begins  by  asking,  "What  is  the  JVesen  of 
Mysticism  ?  "  and  shows  that  it  is  not  quietism  (disproved  by 
mystics  like  Bohme,  and  by  many  active  reformers),  nor  ecstasy 
(which  is  generally  pathological),  nor  asceticism,  nor  allegorism, 
nor  fantastic  symbolism,  nor  obscurity  of  expression,  nor 
religion  generally,  nor  superstition,  nor  the  sum  of  these  things. 
It  is  healthy  in  itself,  and  has  been  of  high  value  to  individuals 
and  to  the  race.  It  prepared  for  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  for  the 
revolt  against  arid  scholasticism  in  the  Middle  Ages,  for  the 
Reformation,  and  for  modern  German  philosophy.  He  shows 
the  mystical  element  in  Hamann,  Jacobi,  Fichte,  and  Schelling  ; 
and  quotes  with  approval  the  description  of  "intellectual 
intuition "  given  by  the  last  named.  We  must  not  speak  of 
thought  as  an  antithesis  to  experience,  "for  thought  (includ- 
ing immediate  or  mystical  knowledge)  is  itself  experience." 
This  knowledge  is  not  derived  from  sense-perception, — the 
conscious  will  has  nothing  to  do  with  it, — "  it  can  only  have 
arisen  through  inspiration  from  the  Unconscious."  He  would 
extend  the  name  of  mystic  to  "  eminent  art-geniuses  who  owe 
their  productions  to  inspirations  of  genius,  and  not  to  the  work 
of  their  consciousness  (e.g.  Phidias,  ^schylus,  Raphael,  Beeth- 
oven"), and  even  to  every  "truly  original"  philosopher,  for 
every  high  thought  has  been  first  apprehended  by  the  glance 
of  genius.  Moreover,  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the 
Absolute,  an  essential  theme  of  philosophy,  can  on/y  be 
mystically  apprehended.  "This  feeling  is  the  content  of 
Mysticism  Kar  iioxqv,  because  it  finds  its  existence  only  in  it." 
He  then  shows  with  great  force  how  religious  and  philosophical 
systems  have  full  probative  force  only  for  the  few  who  are  able 
to  reproduce  mystically  in  themselves  their  underlying  supposi- 
tions, the  truth  of  which  can  only  be  mystically  apprehended. 
"  Hence  it  is  that  those  systems  which  rejoice  in  most  adherents 
are  just  the  poorest  of  all  and  most  unphilosophical  (e.g. 
materialism  and  rationalistic  Theism)." 

9.  Dii  Prel.     "  If  the  self  is  not  wholly  contained  in  self- 
consciousness,  if  man  is  a  being  dualised  by  the  threshold  of 
sensibility,  then  is  Mysticism  possible ;  and  if  the  threshold  of 
sensibility  is  movable,  then  Mysticism  is  necessary."      "The 
22 


338  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

mystical  phenomena  of  the  soul-life  are  anticipations  of  the 
biological  process."  "Soul  is  our  spirit  within  the  self- 
consciousness,  spirit  is  the  soul  beyond  the  self-consciousness." 
This  definition,  with  which  should  be  compared  the  passage 
from  J.  P.  Ritcher,  quoted  in  Lecture  I.,  assumes  that  Mysticism 
may  be  treated  as  a  branch  of  experimental  psychology.  Du  Prel 
attaches  great  importance  to  somnambulism  and  other  kindred 
psychical  phenomena,  which  (he  thinks)  give  us  glimpses  of 
the  inner  world  of  our  Ego,  in  many  ways  different  from  our 
waking  consciousness.  "As  the  moon  turns  to  us  only  half 
its  orb,  so  our  Ego."  He  distinguishes  between  the  Ego  and 
the  subject.  The  former  will  perish  at  death.  It  arises  from 
the  free  act  of  the  subject,  which  enters  the  time-process  as  a 
discipline.  "  The  self-conscious  Ego  is  a  projection  of  the 
transcendental  subject,  and  resembles  it."  "  We  should  regard 
this  earthly  existence  as  a  transitory  phenomenal  form  in 
correspondence  with  our  transcendental  interest."  "  Con- 
science is  transcendental  nature."  (This  last  sentence  suggests 
thoughts  of  great  interest.)  Du  Prel  shows  how  Schopenhauer's 
pessimism  may  be  made  the  basis  of  a  higher  optimism. 
"  The  path  of  biological  advance  leads  to  the  merging  of  the 
Ego  in  the  subject."  "The  biological  aim  for  the  race 
coincides  with  the  transcendental  aim  for  the  individual." 
"The  whole  content  of  Ethics  is  that  the  Ego  must  subserve 
the  Subject."  The  disillusions  of  experience  show  that  earthly 
life  has  no  value  for  its  own  sake,  and  is  only  a  means  to  an 
end ;  it  follows  that  to  make  pleasure  our  end  is  the  one  fatal 
mistake  in  life.  These  thoughts  are  mixed  with  speculations  of 
much  less  value ;  for  I  cannot  agree  with  Du  Prel  that  we  shall 
learn  much  about  higher  and  deeper  modes  of  life  by  studying 
abnormal  and  pathological  states  of  the  consciousness. 

10.  Goethe.     "  Mysticism  is  the  scholastic  of  the  heart,  the 
dialectic  of  the  feelings." 

11.  Noack.     "  Mysticism  is  formless  speculation." 
Noack's  definition  is,  perhaps,  not  very  happily  phrased,  for 

the  essence  of  Mysticism  is  not  speculation  but  intuition ; 
and  when  it  begins  to  speculate,  it  is  obliged  at  once  to 
take  to  itself  "forms."  Even  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  via 
negativa  is  apprehended  as  "  a  kind  of  form  of  formlessness." 


APPENDIX  A  339 

Goethe's  definition  regards  Mysticism  as  a  system  of  religion  or 
philosophy,  and  from  this  point  of  view  describes  it  accurately. 

12.  Ewald.  "  Mystical  theology  begins  by  maintaining  that 
man  is  fallen  away  from  God,  and  craves  to  be  again  united 
wit^h  Him." 

13.  Canon  Overton.  "That  we  bear  the  image  of  God  is 
the  starting-point,  one  might  almost  say  the  postulate,  of  all 
Mysticism.  The  complete  union  of  the  soul  with  God  is  the 
goal  of  all  Mysticism." 

14.  Pfleiderer.  "  Mysticism  is  the  immediate  feeling  of  the 
unity  of  the  self  with  God ;  it  is  nothing,  therefore,  but  the 
fundamental  feeling  of  religion,  the  religious  life  at  its  very 
heart  and  centre.  But  what  makes  the  mystical  a  special 
tendency  inside  religion,  is  the  endeavour  to  fix  the  immediate- 
ness  of  the  life  in  God  as  such,  as  abstracted  from  all  inter- 
vening helps  and  channels  whatever,  and  find  a  permanent 
abode  in  the  abstract  inwardness  of  the  life  of  pious  feeling. 
In  this  God-intoxication,  in  which  self  and  the  world  are  alike 
forgotten,  the  subject  knows  himself  to  be  in  possession  of  the 
highest  and  fullest  truth ;  but  this  truth  is  only  possessed  in  the 
quite  undeveloped,  simple,  and  bare  form  of  monotonous  feel- 
ing ;  what  truth  the  subject  possesses  is  not  filled  up  by  any 
determination  in  which  the  simple  unity  might  unfold  itself, 
and  it  lacks  therefore  the  clearness  of  knowledge,  which  is  only 
attained  when  thought  harmonises  differences  with  unity." 

15.  Professor  A.  Seth.  "Mysticism  is  a  phase  of  thought, 
or  rather,  perhaps,  of  feeling,  which  from  its  very  nature  is 
hardly  susceptible  of  exact  definition.  It  appears  in  connexion 
with  the  endeavour  of  the  human  mind  to  grasp  the  Divine 
essence  or  the  ultimate  reality  of  things,  and  to  enjoy  the 
blessedness  of  actual  communion  with  the  highest.  The  first 
is  the  philosophic  side  of  Mysticism  ;  the  second,  its  religious 
side.  The  thought  that  is  most  .intensely  present  with  the 
mystic  is  that  of  a  supreme,  all-pervading,  and  indwelling 
Power,  in  whom  all  things  are  one.  Hence  the  speculative 
utterances  of  Mysticism  are  always  more  or  less  pantheistic  in 
character.  On  the  practical  side,  Mysticism  maintains  the 
possibility  of  direct  intercourse  with  this  Being  of  beings.  .  .  . 
God  ceases  to  be  an  object,  and  becomes  an  experience." 


340  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

This  carefully-worded  statement  of  the  essence  of  Mysticism 
is  followed  by  a  hostile  criticism.  Professor  Seth  considers 
quietism  the  true  conclusion  from  the  mystic's  premisses.  "  It 
is  characteristic  of  Mysticism,  that  it  does  not  distinguish 
between  what  is  metaphorical  and  what  is  susceptible  of  a 
literal  interpretation.  Hence  it  is  prone  to  treat  a  relation  of 
ethical  harmony  as  if  it  were  one  of  substantial  identity  or 
chemical  fusion  ;  and,  taking  the  sensuous  language  of  religious 
feeling  literally,  it  bids  the  individual  aim  at  nothing  less  than 
an  interpenetration  of  essence.  And  as  this  goal  is  unattainable 
while  reason  and  the  consciousness  of  self  remain,  the  mystic 
begins  to  consider  these  > as  impediments  to  be  thrown  aside. 
.  .  .  Hence  Mysticism  demands  a  faculty  above  reason,  by 
which  the  subject  shall  be  placed  in  immediate  and  complete 
union  with  the  object  of  his  desire,  a  union  in  which  the  con- 
sciousness of  self  has  disappeared,  and  in  which,  therefore, 
subject  and  object  are  one."  To  this,  I  think,  the  mystic 
might  answer :  "  I  know  well  that  interpenetration  and  absorption 
are  words  which  belong  to  the  category  of  space,  and  are  only 
metaphors  or  symbols  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  God ;  but 
separateness,  impenetrability,  and  isolation,  which  you  affirm  of 
the  ego,  belong  to  the  same  category,  and  are  no  whit  less 
metaphorical.  The  question  is,  which  of  the  two  sets  of  words 
best  expresses  the  relation  of  the  ransomed  soul  to  its  Redeemer? 
In  my  opinion,  your  phrase  '  ethical  harmony '  is  altogether 
inadequate,  while  the  New  Testament  expressions,  *  member- 
ship,' '  union,'  '  indwelling-,'  are  as  adequate  as  words  can  be." 
The  rest  of  the  criticism  is  directed  against  the  "  negative 
road,"  which  I  have  no  wish  to  defend,  since  I  cannot  admit 
that  it  follows  logically  from  the  first  principles  of  Mysticism. 

1 6.  Recejac.  "Mysticism  is  the  tendency  to  approach  the 
Absolute  morally,  and  by  means  of  symbols." 

Recejac's  very  interesting  Essai  sur  les  Fondeitients  de  la 
Connaissance  mystique  has  the  great  merit  of  emphasising  the 
symbolic  character  of  all  mystical  phenomena,  and  of  putting 
all  such  experiences  in  their  true  place,  as  neither  hallucina- 
tions nor  invasions  of  the  natural  order,  but  symbols  of  a 
higher  reality.  "  Les  apparitions  et  autres  phenomenes  mys- 
tiques n'existent  que  dans  I'esprit  du  voyant,  et  ne  perdent  rien 


APPENDIX  A  341 

pour  cela  de  leur  prix  ni  de  leur  verite.  .  .  .  Et  alors  n'y  a-t-il 
pas  au  fond  des  symboles  autant  ^etrc  que  sous  les  pheno- 
menes  ?     Bien  plus  encore  :  car  I'etre  phenomenal,  le  re'el,  se 
pose  dans  la  conscience  par  un  enchainement  de  faits  tellement 
successif  que  nous  ne  tenons  jamais  '  le  meme ' ;  tandis  que 
sous  les  symboles,  si  nous  tenons  quelque  chose,  c'est  I'identique 
et  le  permanent."     Rec(5jac  also  insists  with  great  force  that 
the  motive  power  of  Mysticism  is  neither  curiosity  nor  self- 
interest,  but  love :  the  intrusion  of  alien  motives  is  at  once 
fatal  to  it.     "  Its  logic  consists  in  having  confidence  in  the 
rationality  of  the  moral  consciousness  and  its  desires."     This 
agrees  with  what  I  have  said — that  Reason  is,  or  should  be,  the 
logic  of  our  entire  personality,  and  that  if  Reason  is  so  defined, 
it  does  not  come  into  conflict  with  Mysticism.    Recdjac  also  has 
much  to  say  upon  Free  Will  and  Determinism.     He  says  that 
Mysticism  is  an  alliance  between  the  Practical  Reason  (which 
he  identifies  with  "  la  Liberte ")  and  Imagination.     "  Deter- 
minism is  the  opposite,  not  of  '  Liberty,'  but  of  'indifference.' 
Liberty,   as  Fouillee  says,  is   only  a  higher  form  of   Deter- 
minism."    "The  modern  idea  of  liberty,  and  the  mystical  con- 
ception of  Divine  will,  may  be  reconciled  in  the  same  way  as 
inspiration  and  reason,  on  condition  that  both  are  discovered  in 
the  same  fact  interior  to  us,  and  that,  far  from  being  opposed 
to  each  other,  they  are  fused  and  distinguished  together  dans 
quelque  implicite  reeliement  present  a  la  conscience"      R^cejac 
throughout  appeals  to  Kant  instead  of  to  Hegel  as  his  chief 
philosophical  authority,  in  this  differing  from  the  majority  of 
those  who  are  in  sympathy  with  Mysticism. 

17.  Bonchitte.  "Mysticism  consists  in  giving  to  the  spon- 
taneity of  the  intelligence  a  larger  part  than  to  the  other 
faculties." 

18.  Charles  Kings  ley.  "The  great  Mysticism  is  the  belief 
which  is  becoming  every  day  stronger  with  me,  that  all  sym- 
metrical natural  objects  are  types  of  some  spiritual  truth  or 
existence.  When  I  walk  the  fields,  I  am  oppressed  now  and 
then  with  an  innate  feeUng  that  everything  I  see  has  a  meaning, 
if  I  could  but  understand  it.  And  this  feeling  of  being  sur- 
rounded with  truths  which  I  cannot  grasp,  amounts  to  inde- 
scribable awe  sometimes.     Everything  seems  to  be  full  of  God's 


342  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

reflex,  if  we  could  but  see  it.  Oh,  how  I  have  prayed  to  have 
the  mystery  unfolded,  at  least  hereafter !  To  see,  if  but  for  a 
moment,  the  whole  harmony  of  the  great  system  !  To  hear 
once  the  music  which  the  whole  universe  makes  as  it  performs 
His  bidding  !  Oh,  that  heaven  !  The  thought  of  the  first 
glance  of  creation  from  thence,  when  we  know  even  as  we  are 
known.  And  He,  the  glorious,  the  beautiful,  the  incarnate 
Ideal  shall  be  justified  in  all  His  doings,  and  in  all,  and  through 
all,  and  over  all.  .  .  .  All  day,  glimpses  from  the  other  world, 
floating  motes  from  that  inner  transcendental  life,  have  been 
floating  across  me.  .  .  .  Have  you  not  felt  that  your  real  soul 
was  imperceptible  to  your  mental  vision,  except  at  a  few 
hallowed  moments  ?  That  in  everyday  life  the  mind,  looking 
at  itself,  sees  only  the  brute  intellect,  grinding  and  working, 
not  the  Divine  particle,  which  is  life  and  immortality,  and  on 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  most  probably  works,  as  being  most 
cognate  to  Deity"  {Life,  vol.  i.  p.  55).  Again  he  says  :  "This 
earth  is  the  next  greatest  fact  to  that  of  God's  existence." 

Kingsley's  review  of  Vaughan's  Hours  with  the  Mystics 
shows  that  he  retained  his  sympathy  with  Mysticism  at  a  later 
period  of  his  life.  It  would  be  impossible  to  find  any  consistent 
idealistic  philosophy  in  Kingsley's  writings ;  but  the  sentences 
above  quoted  are  interesting  as  a  profession  of  faith  in  Mysti- 
cism of  the  objective  type. 

19.  R.  L.  Nettleship.  "  The  cure  for  a  wrong  Mysticism  is 
to  realise  the  facts,  not  particular  facts  or  aspects  of  facts,  but 
the  whole  fact :  true  Mysticism  is  the  consciousness  that 
everything  that  we  experience  is  an  element,  and  only  an 
element,  in  fact ;  i.e.  that  in  being  what  it  is,  it  is  symbolic  of 
something  more." 

The  obiter  dicta  on  Mysticism  in  Nettleship's  Remaitis  are 
of  great  value. 

20.  Lasson.  "The  essence  of  Mysticism  is  the  assertion  of 
an  intuition  which  transcends  the  temporal  categories  of  the 
understanding,  relying  on  speculative  reason.  Rationalism 
cannot  conduct  us  to  the  essence  of  things ;  we  therefore  need 
intellectual  vision.  But  Mysticism  is  not  content  with  sym- 
bolic knowledge,  and  aspires  to  see  the  Absolute  by  pure 
spiritual  apprehension.  .  .  .  There  is  a  contradiction  in  regard- 


APPENDIX  A  343 

ing  God  as  the  immanent  Essence  of  all  things,  and  yet  as  an 
abstraction  transcending  all  things.  But  it  is  inevitable.  Pure 
immanence  is  unthinkable,  if  we  are  to  maintain  distinctions 
in  things.  .  ,  .  Strict  '  immanence '  doctrine  tends  towards 
the  monopsychism  of  Averroes.  .  .  .  Mysticism  is  often  asso- 
ciated with  pantheism,  but  the  religious  character  of  Mysticism 
views  everything  from  the  standpoint  of  teleology,  while  pan- 
theism generally  stops  at  causality.  .  .  .  Mysticism,  again,  is 
often  allied  with  rationalism,  but  their  ground-principles  are 
different,  for  rationalism  is  deistic,  and  rests  on  this  earth, 
being  based  on  the  understanding  [as  opposed  to  the  higher 
faculty,  the  reason].  .  .  .  Nothing  can  be  more  perverse  than 
to  accuse  Mysticism  of  vagueness.  Its  danger  is  rather  an 
overvaluing  of  reason  and  knowledge.  .  .  .  Mysticism  is  only 
religious  so  long  as  it  remembers  that  we  can  here  only  see 
through  a  glass  darkly ;  when  it  tries  to  represent  the  eternal 
adequately,  it  falls  into  a  new  and  dangerous  retranslation  of 
thought  into  images,  or  into  bare  negation.  .  .  .  Religion  is  a 
relation  of  person  to  person,  a  life,  which  in  its  form  is  an 
analogy  to  the  earthly,  while  its  content  is  pure  relation  to  the 
eternal.  Dogmatic  is  the  skeleton,  Mysticism  the  life-blood, 
of  the  Christian  body.  .  .  .  Since  the  Reformation,  philosophy 
has  taken  over  most  of  the  work  which  the  speculative  mystics 
performed  in  the  Middle  Ages "  {Essay  on  the  Essence  and 
Value  of  Mysticism). 

2  1.  Nordau.  "The  word  Mysticism  describes  a  state  of 
mind  in  which  the  subject  imagines  that  he  perceives  or 
divines  unknown  and  inexplicable  relations  among  phenomena, 
discerns  in  things  hints  at  mysteries,  and  regards  them  as 
symbols  by  which  a  dark  power  seeks  to  unveil,  or  at  least  to 
indicate,  all  sorts  of  marvels.  ...  It  is  always  connected 
with  strong  emotional  excitement.  .  .  .  Nearly  all  our  per- 
ceptions, ideas,  and  conceptions  are  connected  more  or  less 
closely  through  the  association  of  ideas.  But  to  make  the 
association  of  ideas  fulfil  its  function,  one  more  thing  must  be 
added — attention,  which  is  the  faculty  to  suppress  one  part  of 
the  memory-images  and  maintain  another  part."  We  must 
select  the  strongest  and  most  direct  images,  those  direcdy 
connected  with  the  afferent  nerves ;  "  this  Ribot  calls  adapta- 


344  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

tion  of  the  whole  organism  to  a  predominant  idea.  .  .  . 
Attention  presupposes  strength  of  will.  Unrestricted  play  of 
association,  the  result  of  an  exhausted  or  degenerate  brain, 
gives  rise  to  Mysticism.  Since  the  mystic  cannot  express  his 
cloudy  thoughts  in  ordinary  language,  he  loves  mutually  ex- 
clusive expressions.  Mysticism  blurs  outlines,  and  makes  the 
transparent  opaque." 

The  Germans  have  two  words  for  what  we  call  Mysticism — 
Mystik  and  Mysticismus,  the  latter  being  generally  dyslogistic. 
The  long  chapter  in  Nordau's  Degeneration,  entitled  "  Mys- 
ticism," treats  it  throughout  as  a  morbid  state.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  last  sentence  quoted  flatly  contradicts  one 
of  the  statements  copied  from  Lasson's  essay.  But  Nordau  is 
not  attacking  religious  Mysticism,  so  much  as  that  unwholesome 
development  of  symbolic  "science,  falsely  so  called,"  which 
has  usurped  the  name  in  modern  France.  Those  who  are 
interested  in  Mysticism  should  certainly  study  the  pathological 
symptoms  which  counterfeit  mystical  states,  and  from  this 
point  of  view  the  essay  in  Degeneration  is  valuable.  The 
observations  of  Nordau  and  other  alienists  must  lead  us  to 
suspect  very  strongly  the  following  kinds  of  symbolical 
representation,  whether  the  symbols  are  borrowed  from  the 
external  world,  or  created  by  the  imagination  : — {a)  All  those 
which  include  images  of  a  sexual  character.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  illustrate  this.  The  visions  of  monks  and  nuns  are  often, 
as  we  might  expect,  unconsciously  tinged  with  a  morbid 
element  of  this  kind,  {b)  Those  which  depend  on  mere 
verbal  resemblances  or  other  fortuitous  correspondences. 
Nordau  shows  that  the  diseased  brain  is  very  ready  to  follow 
these  false  trains  of  association,  {c)  Those  which  are  con- 
nected with  the  sense  of  smell,  which  seems  to  be  morbidly 
developed  in  this  kind  of  degeneracy,  {d)  Those  which  in 
any  way  minister  to  pride  or  self-sufficiency. 

22.  Harnack.  "Mysticism  is  rationalism  applied  to  a 
sphere  above  reason." 

I  have  criticised  this  definition  in  my  first  Lecture,  and  have 
suggested  that  the  words  "  rationalism  "  and  "  reason  "  ought 
to  be  transposed.  Elsewhere  Harnack  says  that  the  dis- 
tinctions   between    "  Scholastic,    Roman,    German,    Catholic, 


APPENDIX  A  345  , 

Evangelical,  and  Pantheistic  Mysticism "  are  at  best  super- 
ficial, and  in  particular  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  contrast 
"  Scholasticism  and  Mysticism "  as  opposing  forces  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  "  Mysticism,"  he  proceeds,  "  is  Catholic  piety 
in  general,  so  far  as  this  piety  is  not  merely  ecclesiastical 
obedience,  that  is,  fides  i?nplicita.  The  Reformation  element 
which  is  ascribed  to  it  lies  simply  in  this,  that  Mysticism,  when 
developed  in  a  particular  direction,  is  led  to  discern  the 
inherent  responsibility  of  the  soul,  of  which  no  authority  can 
again  deprive  it."  The  conflicts  between  Mysticism  and 
Church  authority,  he  thinks,  in  no  way  militate  against  both 
being  Catholic  ideals,  just  as  asceticism  and  world-supremacy 
are  both  Catholic  ideals,  though  contradictory.  The  German 
mystics  he  disparages.  "  I  give  no  extracts  from  their 
writings,"  he  says,  "  because  I  do  not  wish  even  to  seem  to 
countenance  the  error  that  they  expressed  anything  that  one 
cannot  read  in  Origen,  Plotinus,  the  Areopagite,  Augustine, 
Erigena,  Bernard,  and  Thomas,  or  that  they  represented 
religious  progress."  "It  will  never  be  possible  to  make 
Mysticism  Protestant  without  flying  in  the  face  of  history  and 
Catholicism."  "  A  mystic  who  does  not  become  a  Catholic  is 
a  dilettante." 

Before  considering  these  statements,  I  will  quote  from 
another  attack  upon  Mysticism  by  a  writer  whose  general 
views  are  very  similar  to  those  of  Harnack. 

23.  Herrmann  {Verkehr  des  Christen  mit  Gott).  "The 
most  conspicuous  features  of  the  Roman  Catholic  rule  of  life 
are  obedience  to  the  laws  of  cultus  and  of  doctrine  on  the  one 
side,  and  Neoplatonic  Mysticism  on  the  other.  .  .  .  The 
essence  of  Mysticism  lies  in  this  :  when  the  influence  of  God 
upon  the  soul  is  sought  and  found  solely  in  an  inward  ex- 
perience of  the  individual;  when  certain  excitements  of  the 
emotions  are  taken,  with  no  further  question,  as  evidence  that 
the  soul  is  possessed  by  God  :  when  at  the  same  time  nothing 
external  to  the  soul  is  consciously  and  clearly  perceived  and 
firmly  grasped ;  when  no  thoughts  that  elevate  the  spiritual 
life  are  aroused  by  the  positive  contents  of  an  idea  that  rules 
the  soul, — then  that  is  the  piety  of  Mysticism.  .  .  .  Mysticism 
is  not  that  which  is  common  to  all  religion,  but  a  particular 


346  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

species  of  religion,  namely  a  piety  which  feels  that  which  is 
historical  in  the  positive  religion  to  be  burdensome,  and  so 
rejects  it." 

These  extracts  from  Harnack  and  Herrmann  represent  the 
attitude  towards  Mysticism  of  the  Ritschlian  school  in  Ger- 
many, of  which  Kaftan  is  another  well-known  exponent.  They 
are  neo-Kantians,  whose  religion  is  an  austere  moralism,  and 
who  seem  to  regard  Christianity  as  a  primitive  Puritanism, 
spoiled  by  the  Greeks,  who  brought  into  it  their  intellectualism 
and  their  sacramental  mysteries.  True  Christianity,  they  say, 
is  faith  in  the  historic  Christ.  "  In  the  human  Jesus,"  says 
Herrmann,  "we  have  met  with  a  fact,  the  content  of  which  is 
incomparably  richer  than  that  of  any  feelings  which  arise 
within  ourselves, — a  fact,  moreover,  which  makes  us  so  certain 
of  God  that,  our  reason  and  conscience  being  judges,  our  con- 
viction is  only  confirmed  that  we  are  in  communion  with  Him." 
"  The  mystic's  experience  of  God  is  a  delusion.  .  If  the 
Christian  has  learnt  how  Christ  alone  has  lifted  him  above  all 
that  he  had  even  been  before,  he  cannot  believe  that  another 
man  might  reach  the  same  end  by  simply  turning  inward  upon 
himself."  "The  piety  of  the  mystic  is  such  that  at  the  highest 
point  to  which  it  leads  Christ  must  vanish  from  the  soul  along 
with  all  else  that  is  external."  This  curious  view  of  Christianity 
quite  fails  to  explain  how  "  our  reason  and  conscience "  can 
detect  the  "incomparable  richness"  of  a  revelation  altogether 
unlike  "the  feehngs  which  arise  within  ourselves."  It  en- 
tirely ignores  the  Pauline  and  Johannine  doctrine  of  the 
mystical  union,  according  to  which  Christ  is  not  "  external " 
to  the  redeemed  soul,  and  most  assuredly  can  never  "vanish" 
from  it.  Instead  of  the  "Lo  I  am  with  you  alway"  of  our 
blessed  Lord,  we  are  referred  to  "history" — that  is,  primarily, 
the  four  Gospels  confirmed  by  "  a  fifth,"  "  the  united  testimony 
of  the  first  Christian  community "  (Harnack,  Christianity  atid 
History).  We  are  presented  with  a  Christianity  without 
knowledge  (Gnosis),  without  discipline,  without  sacraments, 
resting  partly  on  a  narrative  which  these  very  historical  critics 
tear  in  pieces,  each  in  his  own  fashion,  and  partly  on  a  cate- 
gorical imperative  which  is  really  the  voice  of  "  irreligious 
moralism,"  as  Pfleiderer  calls  it.     The  words  are  justified  by 


APPENDIX  A  347 

such  a  sentence  as  this  from  Herrmann :  "  Religious  faith  in 
God  is,  rightly  understood,  just  the  medium  by  which  the 
universal  law  becomes  individualised  for  the  particular  man  in 
his  particular  place  in  the  world's  life,  so  as  to  enable  him  to 
recognise  its  absoluteness  as  the  ground  of  his  self-certainty, 
and  the  ideal  drawn  in  it  as  his  own  personal  end."  Thus  the 
school  which  has  shown  the  greatest  animus  against  Mysticism 
unconsciously  approaches  very  near  to  the  atheism  of  Feuer- 
bach.  Indeed,  what  worse  atheism  can  there  be,  than  such 
disbelief  in  the  rationality  of  our  highest  thoughts  as  is  ex- 
pressed in  this  sentence :  "  Metaphysics  is  an  impassioned 
endeavour  to  obtain  recognition  for  thoughts,  the  contents  of 
which  have  no  other  title  to  be  recognised  than  their  value 
for  us  "  ?  As  if  faith  in  God  had  any  other  meaning  than  a 
confidence  that  what  is  of  "  value  for  us  "  is  the  eternally  and 
universally  good  and  true !  Herrmann's  attitude  towards 
reason  can  only  escape  atheism  by  accepting  in  preference  the 
crudest  dualism,  "  behind  which "  (to  quote  Pfleiderer  again) 
lies  concealed  simply  "the  scepticism  of  a  disintegrating 
Nominalism." 

24.  Victor  Cousin.  "Mysticism  is  the  pretension  to  know 
God  without  intermediary,  and,  so  to  speak,  face  to  face. 
For  Mysticism,  whatever  is  between  God  and  us  hides  Him 
from  us."  "  Mysticism  consists  in  substituting  direct  inspira- 
tion for  indirect,  ecstasy  for  reason,  rapture  for  philosophy." 

25.  R.  A.  Vmighan.  "Mysticism  is  that  form  of  error 
which  mistakes  for  a  Divine  manifestation  the  operations  of  a 
merely  human  faculty." 

This  poor  definition  is  the  only  one  (except  "  Mysticism  is 
the  romance  of  religion ")  to  be  found  in  Hours  with  the 
Mystics,  the  solitary  work  in  English  which  attempts  to  give  a 
history  of  Christian  Mysticism.  The  book  has  several  con- 
spicuous merits.  The  range  of  the  author's  reading  is 
remarkable,  and  he  has  a  wonderful  gift  of  illustration.  But 
he  was  not  content  to  trust  to  the  interest  of  the  subject  to 
make  his  book  popular,  and  tried  to  attract  readers  by  placing 
it  in  a  most  incongruous  setting.  There  is  something  almost 
offensive  in  telling  the  story  of  men  like  Tauler,  Suso,  and 
Juan  of  the  Cross,  in  the  form  of  smart  conversations  at  a 


348  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

house-party,  and  the  jokes  cracked  at  the  expense  of  the 
benighted  "mystics"  are  not  ahvays  in  the  best  taste. 
Vaughan  does  not  take  his  subject  quite  seriously  enough. 
There  is  an  irritating  air  of  superiority  in  all  his  discussions  of 
the  lives  and  doctrines  of  the  mystics,  and  his  hatred  and 
contempt  for  the  Roman  Church  often  warp  his  judgment. 
His  own  philosophical  standpoint  is  by  no  means  clear,  and 
this  makes  his  treatment  of  speculative  Mysticism  less  satis- 
factory than  the  more  popular  parts  of  the  book.  It  is  also  a 
pity  that  he  has  neglected  the  English  representatives  of 
Mysticism ;  they  are  quite  as  interesting  in  their  way  as 
Madame  Guyon,  whose  story  he  tells  at  disproportionate 
length.  /  At  the  same  time,  I  wish  to  acknowledge  con- 
siderable obligations  to  Vaughan,  whose  early  death  probably 
deprived  us  of  even  better  work  than  the  book  which  made  - 
his  reputation. 

26.  James  Hinton.  "Mysticism  is  an  assertion  of  a  means 
of  knowing  that  must  not  be  tried  by  ordinary  rules  of 
evidence — the  claiming  authority  for  our  own  impressions." 

Another  poor  and  question-begging  definition,  on  the  same 
lines  as  the  last. 


APPENDIX    B 

The  Greek  Mysteries  and  Christain  Mysticism 

The  connexion  between  the  Greek  Mysteries  and  Christian 
Mysticism  is  marked  not  only  by  the  name  which  the  world  has 
agreed  to  give  to  that  type  of  religion  (though  it  must  be  said 
that  ixva-Trjpia  is  not  the  commonest  name  for  the  Mysteries — 
opyta,  TeXerat,  TeXrj  are  all,  I  think,  more  frequent),  but  by  the 
evident  desire  on  the  part  of  such  founders  of  mystical  Christi- 
anity as  Clement  and  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  to  emphasise 
the  resemblance.  It  is  not  without  a  purpose  that  these 
writers,  and  other  Platonising  theologians  from  the  third  to  the 
fifth  century,  transfer  to  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  Church 
almost  every  term  which  was  associated  with  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries  and  others  like  them.  For  instance,  the  sacraments 
are  regularly  fjLva-TrjpLa ;  baptism  is  /jlvcttlkov  Xovrpov  (Gregory  of 
Nyssa) ;  unction,  ■)(piaixa  (jlvo-tlkov  (Athanasius) ;  the  elements, 
/Avo-Tts  cSwSt;  (Gregory  Naz.) ;  and  participation  in  them  is 
fjiva-TiKT]  fjL£TdXrnJ/is.  Baptism,  again,  is  "  initiation  "  (/avt/o-is)  ;  a 
baptized  person  is  fjcefxyrjixevo?,  fxv(rT7]<s,  or  a-vfjiixva-Trjs  (Gregory 
Ny.  and  Chrysostom),  an  unbaptized  person  is  dixvr]To<;.  The 
celebrant  is  fjLva-T-qpLtxyv  XavOavovrwv  fxv(TTaywy6<;  (Gregory  Ny.) ; 
the  administration  is  TrapaSoo-is,  as  at  Eleusis.  The  sacraments 
are  also  Tf-X^rrj  or  tIXtj,  regular  Mystery-words ;  as  are  reActwo-ts, 
TcXciovcr^at,  TfAeioTToto?,  which  are  used  in  the  same  con- 
nexion. Secret  formulas  (the  notion  of  secret  formulas  itself 
comes  from  the  Mysteries)  were  aTropprjra,  (Whether  the  words 
^wTicr/Ao's  and  cr(/)pay6s  in  their  sacramental  meaning  come  from 
the  Mysteries  seems  doubtful,  in  spite  of  Hatch,  Hibbert 
Lectures,  p.  295.)  Nor  is  the  language  of  the  Mysteries 
applied  only  to  the  sacraments.  Clement  calls  purgative  disci- 
pline TO.  KaOdpcria,  and  to.  fj.iKpa  fjivcrrypia,  and  the  highest  stage 

349 


350  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

in  the  spiritual  life  eVoTrrcta.  He  also  uses  such  language  as 
the  following  :  "  0  truly  sacred  mysteries  !  O  stainless  light ! 
My  way  is  lighted  with  torches,  and  I  survey  the  heavens  and 
God  !  I  am  become  holy  while  I  am  being  initiated.  The 
Lord  is  my  hierophant,"  etc.  {Protr.  xii.  120).  Dionysius,  as  I 
have  shown  in  a  note  on  Lecture  III.,  uses  the  Mystery  words 
frequently,  and  gives  to  the  orders  of  the  Christian  ministry 
the  names  which  distinguished  the  officiating  priests  at  the 
Mysteries.  The  aim  of  these  writers  was  to  prove  that  the 
Church  offers  a  mysteriosophy  which  includes  all  the  good 
elements  of  the  old  Mysteries  without  their  corruptions.  The 
alliance  between  a  Mystery-religion  and  speculative  Mysticism 
within  the  Church  was  at  this  time  as  close  as  that  between 
the  Neoplatonic  philosophy  and  the  revived  pagan  Mystery- 
cults.  But  when  we  try  to  determine  the  amount  of  direct 
influence  exercised  by  the  later  paganism  on  Christian  usages 
and  thought,  we  are  baffled  both  by  the  loss  of  documents, 
and  by  the  extreme  difficulty  of  tracing  the  pedigree  of  religious 
ideas  and  customs.  I  shall  here  content  myself  with  calling 
attention  to  certain  features  which  were  common  to  the  Greek 
Mysteries  and  to  Alexandrian  Christianity,  and  which  may 
perhaps  claim  to  be  in  part  a  legacy  of  the  old  religion  to  the 
new.  My  object  is  not  at  all  to  throw  discredit  upon  modes 
of  thought  which  may  have  been  unfamiliar  to  Palestinian 
Jews.  A  doctrine  or  custom  is  not  necessarily  un-Christian 
because  it  is  "  Greek  "  or  "  pagan."  I  know  of  no  stranger 
perversity  than  for  men  who  rest  the  whole  weight  of  their 
religion  upon  "history,"  to  suppose  that  our  Lord  meant  to 
raise  an  universal  religion  on  a  purely  Jewish  basis. 

The  Greek  Mysteries  were  perhaps  survivals  of  an  old- 
world  ritual,  based  on  a  primitive  kind  of  Nature-Mysticism, 
The  "public  Mysteries,"  of  which  the  festival  at  Eleusis  was 
the  most  important,  were  so  called  because  the  State  ad- 
mitted strangers  by  initiation  to  what  was  originally  a  national 
cult.  (There  were  also  private  Mysteries,  conducted  for  profit 
by  itinerant  priests  {ayvprai)  from  the  East,  who  as  a  class 
bore  no  good  reputation.)  The  main  features  of  the  ritual 
at  Eleusis  are  known.  The  festival  began  at  Athens,  where 
the  mystcE  collected,  and,  after   a  fast  of  several   days,  were 


APPENDIX   B  351 

"  driven "  to  the  sea,  or  to  two  salt  lakes  on  the  road  to 
Eleusis,  for  a  purifying  bath.  This  kind  of  baptism  washed 
away  the  stains  of  their  former  sins,  the  worst  of  which  they 
were  obliged  to  confess  before  being  admitted  to  the  Mysteries. 
Then,  after  sacrifices  had 'been  offered,  the  company  went  in 
procession  to  Eleusis,  where  Mystery-plays  were  performed  in 
a  great  hall,  large  enough  to  hold  thousands  of  people,  and 
the  votaries  were  allowed  to  handle  certain  sacred  relics.  A 
sacramental  meal,  in  which  a  mixture  of  mint,  barley-meal,  and 
water  was  administered  to  the  initiated,  was  an  integral  part 
of  the  festival.  The  most  secret  part  of  the  ceremonies  was 
reserved  for  the  cVoVrai,  who  had  passed  through  the  ordinary 
initiation  in  a  previous  year.  It  probably  culminated  in  the 
solemn  exhibition  of  a  corn-ear,  the  symbol  of  Demeter.  The 
obligation  of  silence  was  imposed  not  so  much  because  there 
were  any  secrets  to  reveal,  but  that  the  holiest  sacraments  of 
the  Greek  religion  might  not  be  profaned  by  being  brought 
into  contact  with  common  life.  This  feeling  was  strengthened 
by  the  belief  that  words  are  more  than  conventional  symbols 
of  things.  A  sacred  formula  must  not  be  taken  in  vain,  or 
divulged  to  persons  who  might  misuse  it. 

The  evidence  is  strong  that  the  Mysteries  had  a  real 
spiritualising  and  moralising  influence  on  large  numbers  of 
those  who  were  initiated,  and  that  this  influence  was  increasing 
under  the  early  empire.  The  ceremonies  may  have  been  trivial, 
and  even  at  times  ludicrous ;  but  the  discovery  had  been  made 
that  the  performance  of  solemn  acts  of  devotion  in  common, 
after  ascetical  preparation,  and  with  the  aid  of  an  impressive 
ritual,  is  one  of  the  strongest  incentives  to  piety.  Diodorus  is 
not  alone  in  saying  (he  is  speaking  of  the  Samothracian  Mys- 
teries) that  "  those  who  have  taken  part  in  them  are  said  to 
become  more  pious,  more  upright,  and  in  every  way  better 
than  their  former  selves." 

The  chief  motive  force  which  led  to  the  increased  im- 
portance of  Mystery-religion  in  the  first  centuries  of  our  era, 
was  the  desire  for  "  salvation "  (crwTT^pta),  which  both  with 
pagans  and  Christians  was  very  closely  connected  with  the 
hope  of  everlasting  life.  Happiness  after  death  was  the  great 
promise  held  out  in  the  Mysteries.    The  initiated  were  secure  of 


352  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

blessedness  in  the  next  world,  while  the  uninitiated  must  expect 
"to  lie  in  darkness  and  mire  after  their  death"  (cf.  Plato, 
Fhcsdrus,  69). 

How  was  this  "  salvation  "  attained  or  conferred  ?  We  find 
that  several  conflicting  views  were  held,  which  it  is  impossible 
to  keep  rigidly  separate,  since  the  human  mind  at  one  time 
inclines  to  one  of  them,  at  another  time  to  another. 

{a)  Salvation  is  imparted  by  revdation.  This  makes  it  to 
depend  upon  knozv ledge ;  but  this  knowledge  was  in  the  Mys- 
teries conveyed  by  the  spectacle  or  drama,  not  by  any  intel- 
lectual process.  Plutarch  {de  Defect.  Orac.  22)  says  that  those 
who  had  been  initiated  could  produce  no  demonstration  or 
proof  of  the  beliefs  which  they  had  acquired.  And  Synesius 
quotes  Aristotle  as  saying  that  the  initiated  do  not  learn 
anything,  but  rather  receive  impressions  (ou  jxadCiv  tl  Setv  dXAa 
Tradftv).  The  old  notion  that  monotheism  was  taught  as  a 
secret  dogma  rests  on  no  evidence,  and  is  very  unlikely. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  OeoKpacrta,  as  the  ancients  called  it, 
and  some  departures  from  the  current  theogonies,  but  such 
doctrine  as  there  was,  was  much  nearer  to  pantheism  than  to 
monotheism.  Certain  truths  about  nature  and  the  facts  of 
life  were  communicated  in  the  "  greatest  mysteries,"  according 
to  Clement,  and  Cicero  says  the  same  thing.  And  sometimes 
the  yvwo-is  (TwTrjpia'i  includes  knowledge  about  the  whence  and 
whither  of  man  (rtvc?  itr/xev  koI  tI  ycydva/Aci/,  Clem.  JSxc.  ex 
Theod.  78).  Some  of  the  mystical  formulae  were  no  doubt 
susceptible  of  deep  and  edifying  interpretations,  especially  in 
the  direction  of  an  elevated  nature-worship. 

{h)  Salvation  was  regarded,  as  in  the  Oriental  religions,  as 
emancipation  from  the  fetters  of  human  existence.  Doctrines 
of  this  kind  were  taught  especially  in  the  Orphic  Mysteries, 
where  it  was  a  secret  doctrine  (dTroppiyros  Ao-yos,  Plat.  Phcedr. 
62)  that  "we  men  are  here  in  a  kind  of  prison,"  or  in  a  tomb 
((rrjfji.a.  rives  to  crMfxa  elvat  t^s  ij/v)(yj^,  ws  Te^a/AyLieVT/s  iv  tw  irapovTL, 
Plat.  Cral.  400).  They  also  believed  in  transmigration  of 
souls,  and  in  a  kvkXos  t^s  yeve'creo)?  (rola  fati  et  generationis). 
The  "  Orphic  life,"  or  rules  of  conduct  enjoined  upon  these 
mystics,  comprised  asceticism,  and,  in  particular,  abstinence 
from   flesh;   and   laid   great   stress   on    "following  of  God" 


APPENDIX  B  353 

{IwecrOaL  OX  aKoXovOelv  to3  ^ew)  as  the  goal  of  moral  endeavour. 
This  cult,  however,  was  tinged  with  Thracian  barbarism ;  its 
heaven  was  a  kind  of  Valhalla  (fi^Or]  atwvto?,  Plat.  J?cJ>.  ii.  363). 
Very  similar  was  the  rule  of  life  prescribed  by  the  Pythagorean 
brotherhood,  who  were  also  vegetarians,  and  advocates  of  vir- 
ginity. Their  system  of  purgation,  followed  by  initiation, 
liberated  men  "from  the  grievous  woeful  circle"  (kvkXov  8' 
i^iTTTav  /3apviriv6eos  apyaXeoio  on  a  tombstone),  and  entitled 
them  "to  a  happy  life  with  the  gods."  (For  the  conception  of 
salvation  as  deification,  see  Appendix  C.)  Whether  these  sects 
taught  that  our  separate  individuality  must  be  merged  is  un- 
certain ;  but  among  the  Gnostics,  who  had  much  in  common 
with  the  Orphic  //mte,  the  formula,  "  I  am  thou,  and  thou  art 
I,"  was  common  {Fi'stis  Sophia  ;  formulse  of  the  Marcosians ; 
also  in  an  invocation  of  Hermes  :  to  crov  ovofia  ifiov  /cat  to 
ifiov  crov.  cyoj  yap  clfxi  to  el'ScuXov  (tov.  Rohde,  JPsyche^  VOl. 
ii.  p.  61).  A  foretaste  of  this  deliverance  was  given  by  initia- 
tion, which  conducts  the  mystic  to  ecstasy^  an  oXtyoxpoVios 
/xavia  (Galen),  in  which  "  animus  ita  solutus  est  et  vacuus  ut 
ei  plane  nihil  sit  cum  corpore "  (Cic.  De  Divin.  i.  i.  113); 
which  was  otherwise  conceived  as  ivOovaiaa-fxos  {Ivdovcnwa-q^ 
KoX  ovkIti  ovarj'i  iv  iavTrj  Stavota?,  Philo). 

((t)  The  imperishable  Divine  nature  is  infused  by  mechanical 
means.  Sacraments  and  the  like  have  a  magical  or  miraculous 
potency.  The  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter  insists  only  on 
ritual  purity  as  the  condition  of  salvation,  and  we  hear  that 
people  trusted  to  the  mystic  baptism  to  wash  out  all  their 
previous  sins.  Similarly  the  baptism  of  blood,  the  taurobolium^ 
was  supposed  to  secure  eternal  happiness,  at  any  rate  if  death 
occurred  within  twenty  years  after  the  ceremony  ;  when  that 
interval  had  elapsed,  it  was  common  to  renew  the  rite.  (We 
find  on  inscriptions  such  phrases  as  "  arcanis  perfusionibus  in 
aeternum  renatus.")  So  mechanical  was  the  operation  of  the 
Mysteries  supposed  to  be,  that  rites  were  performed  for  the 
dead  (Plat.  Rep.  364.  St.  Paul  seems  to  refer  to  a  similar 
custom  in  i  Cor.  xv.  29),  and  infants  were  appointed 
"  priests,"  and  thoroughly  initiated,  that  they  might  be  clean 
from  their  "  original  sin."  Among  the  Gnostics,  a  favourite 
phrase  was  that  initiation  releases  men  "from  the  fetters  of 

2X 


354  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

fate  and  necessity " ;  the  gods  of  the  inteUigible  world  {6eol 
vorjTOi),  with  whom  we  hold  communion  in  the  Mysteries, 
being  above  "fate." 

(d)  Salvation  consists  of  moral  regeneration.  The  efficacy 
of  initiation  without  moral  reformation  naturally  appeared 
doubtful  to  serious  thinkers.  Diogenes  is  reported  to  have 
asked,  "What  say  you?  Will  Patgecion  the  thief  be  happier 
in  the  next  world  than  Epaminondas,  because  he  has  been 
initiated?"  And  Philo  says,  "  It  often  happens  that  good 
men  are  not  initiated,  but  that  robbers,  and  murderers,  and 
lewd  women  are,  if  they  pay  money  to  the  initiators  and  hiero- 
phants."  Ovid  protests  against  the  immoral  doctrine  of 
mechanical  purgation  with  more  than  his  usual  earnestness 
(Fasfi,  ii.  35)  :— 

"  Omne  nefas  omnemque  mali  purgamina  causam 

Credebant  nostri  tollere  posse  senes. 
Greecia  principium  moris  fuit ;   ilia  nocentes 

Impia  lustratos  ponere  facta  putat. 
A  !  nitnium  faciles,  qui  tristia  crimina  csedis 

Fluminea  tolli  posse  putetis  aqua  ! " 

Such  passages  show  that  abuses  existed,  but  also  that  it  was 
felt  to  be  a  scandal  if  the  initiated  person  failed  to  exhibit  any 
moral  improvement. 

These  different  conceptions  of  the  office  of  the  Mysteries 
cannot,  as  I  have  said,  be  separated  historically.  They  all 
reappear  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  sacraments.  The 
main  features  of  the  Mystery  -  system  which  passed  into 
Catholicism  are  the  notions  of  secrecy,  of  symbolism,  of 
mystical  brotherhood,  of  sacramental  grace,  and,  above  all,  of 
the  three  stages  in  the  spiritual  life,  ascetic  purification, 
illumination,  and  cTroTrraa  as  the  crown. 

The  secrecy  observed  about  creeds  and  liturgical  forms  had 
not  much  to  do  with  the  development  of  Mysticism,  except  by 
associating  sacredness  with  obscurity  (cf.  Strabo,  x.  467,  tj  Kpvij/is 
rj  fxvcTTLKr]  o-e/AVOTTOtct  TO  6eiov,  iii[xovfxivq  t^v  (f>va-LV  avTOv  ck^cu- 
yovorav  t^v  aLo-Orjo-iv),  a  tendency  which  also  showed  itself  in 
the  love  of  symbolism.  This  certainly  had  a  great  influence, 
both  in  the  form  of  allegorism  (cf.  Clem.  Stro7n.  i.  i.  15,  eori 
S^t   a   KoX   alviierai  jxol  rj  ypat^rf   Treipda-CTai.   8k   Koi    \av6dvov(ra 


APPENDIX  B  35  5 

ttTTCtv    Koi    tTTLKpvTVTOjxivq    iKcf)rjvai    KOL    Sei^at    (TtcoTraicra),    which 

Philo  calls  "the  method  of  the  Greek  Mysteries,"  and  in  the 
various  kinds  of  Nature-Mysticism.  The  great  value  of  the 
Mysteries  lay  in  the  facilities  which  they  offered  for  free 
symbolical  interpretation. 

The  idea  of  mystical  union  by  means  of  a  common  meal 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  familiar  to  the  Greeks.  For  instance, 
Plutarch  says  (JVon  posse  suav.  vivi  sec.  Epic.  21),  "It  is  not 
the  wine  or  the  cookery  that  delights  us  at  these  feasts,  but 
good  hope,  and  the  belief  that  God  is  present  with  us,  and 
that  He  accepts  our  service  graciously."  There  have  always 
been  two  ideas  of  sacrifice,  alike  in  savage  and  civilised  cults 
— the  mystical,  in  which  it  is  a  cotnnrmiion,  the  victim  who  is 
slain  and  eaten  being  himself  the  god,  or  a  symbol  of  the  god  ; 
and  the  commercial,  in  which  something  valuable  is  offered  to 
the  god  in  the  hope  of  receiving  some  benefit  in  exchange. 
The  Mysteries  certainly  encouraged  the  idea  of  communion, 
and  made  it  easier  for  the  Christian  rite  to  gather  up  into  itself 
all  the  religious  elements  which  can  be  contained  in  a  sacra- 
ment of  this  kind. 

But  the  scheme  of  ascent  from  KaOapcn^  to  fjLvrjcrL?,  and  from 
fivr](TL<;  to  i-TroTTTeia,  is  the  great  contribution  of  the  Mysteries  to 
Christian  Mysticism.  Purification  began,  as  we  have  seen, 
with  confession  of  sin ;  it  proceeded  by  means  of  fasting  (with 
which  was  combined  dyveia  a-rro  o-ui'ovcrtas)  and  meditation, 
till  the  second  stage,  that  of  illumination,  was  reached.  The 
majority  were  content  with  the  partial  illumination  which 
belonged  to  this  stage,  just  as  in  books  of  Roman  Catholic 
divinity  "mystical  theology"  is  a  summit  of  perfection  to 
which  "all  are  not  called."  The  elect  advanced,  after  a  year's 
interval  at  least,  to  the  full  contemplation  {iTroTnda).  This 
highest  truth  was  conveyed  in  various  ways — by  visible  sym- 
bols dramatically  displayed,  by  solemn  words  of  mysterious 
import ;  by  explanations  of  enigmas  and  allegories  and  dark 
speeches  (cf.  Orig.  Cels.  vii.  i  o),  and  perhaps  by  "  visions 
and  revelations."  It  is  plain  that  this  is  one  of  the  cases  in 
which  Christianity  conquered  Hellenism  by  borrowing  from  it 
all  its  best  elements ;  and  I  do  not  see  that  a  Christian  need 
feel  any  reluctance  to  make  this  admission. 


APPENDIX    C 

The  Doctrine  of  Deification 

The  conception  of  salvation  as  the  acquisition  by  man  of 
Divine  attributes  is  common  to  many  forms  of  religious 
thought.  It  was  widely  diffused  in  the  Roman  Empire  at 
the  time  of  the  Christian  revelation,  and  was  steadily  growing 
in  importance  during  the  first  centuries  of  our  era.  The 
Orphic  Mysteries  had  long  taught  the  doctrine.  On  tomb- 
stones erected  by  members  of  the  Orphic  brotherhoods  we 
find  such  inscriptions  as  these  :  "  Happy  and  blessed  one  ! 
Thou  shalt  be  a  god  instead  of  a  mortal  "  (oX/Ste  nal  /xa/cap- 
icrre,  6e6<;  8'  eo-r]  avrl  ppoTolo) ;  "  Thou  art  a  god  instead  of  a 
wretched  man  "  (^eos  el  eXeetvoD  l^  avOpwnov).  It  has  indeed 
been  said  that  "  deification  was  the  idea  of  salvation  taught  in 
the  Mysteries  "  (Harnack). 

To  moiiern  ears  the  word  "deification"  sounds  not  only 
strange,  but  arrogant  and  shocking.  The  Western  conscious- 
ness has  always  tended  to  emphasise  the  distinctness  of  indi- 
viduality, and  has  been  supicious  of  anything  that  looks  like 
juggling  with  the  rights  of  persons,  human  or  Divine.  This  is 
especially  true  of  thought  in  the  Latin  countries.  Deus  has 
never  been  a  fluid  concept  like  6e6<;.  St.  Augustine  no  doubt 
gives  us  the  current  Alexandrian  philosophy  in  a  Latin  dress ; 
but  this  part  of  his  Platonism  never  became  acclimatised  in 
the  Latin-speaking  countries.  The  Teutonic  genius  is  in  this 
matter  more  in  sympathy  with  the  Greek  ;  but  we  are  AVesterns, 
while  the  later  "Greeks "were  half  Orientals,  and  there  is 
much  in  their  habits  of  thought  which  is  strange  and  unin- 
telligible to  us.  Take,  for  instance,  the  apotheosis  of  the 
emperors.     This  was  a  genuinely  Eastern   mode  'Of  homage, 


APPENDIX   C  357 

which    to   the    true    European    remained   either    profane    or 
ridiculous.     But  Vespasian's  last  joke,  "  Vce  I  pttto  Dens  fio  /" 
would  not  sound  comic  in   Greek.     The  associations  of  the 
word  6€6<i  were  not  sufficiently  venerable  to  make  the  idea  of 
deification    (6co-iroLr]arL<i)   grotesque.     We    find,    as   we   should 
expect,    that   this   vulgarisation    of    the   word    affected   even 
Christians  in  the  Greek-speaking  countries.     Not  only  were 
the  "  barbarous  people "  of  Galatia  and  ISIalta  ready  to  find 
"  theophanies  "  in  the  visits  of  apostles,  or  any  other  strangers 
who  seemed  to  have  unusual  powers,  but  the  philosophers 
(except   the    "godless    Epicureans")   agreed    in    calling    the 
highest  faculty  of  the  soul  Divine,  and  in  speaking  of  "the 
God  who  dwells  within  us."     There  is  a  remarkable  passage  of 
Origen  (quoted  by  Harnack)  which  shows  how  elastic  the  word 
Oeo^  was  in  the  current  dialect  of  the  educated.     "  In  another 
sense  God  is  said  to  be  an  immortal,  rational,  moral  Being. 
In  this  sense  every  gentle  (ao-rei'a)  soul  is  God.     But  God  is 
otherwise  defined  as  the  self-existing  immortal  Being.     In  this 
sense  the  souls  that  are  enclosed  in  wise  men  are  not  gods." 
Clement,  too,  speaks   of  the  soul  as   "training    itself  to    be 
God."     Even  more  remarkable  than  such  language  (of  which 
many   other    examples    might   be   given)   is    the    frequently 
recurring    accusation    that   bishops,   teachers,  martyrs,   philo- 
sophers, etc.,  are  venerated  with  Divine  or  semi-Divine  honours. 
These  charges  are  brought  by  Christians  against  pagans,  by 
pagans  against  Christians,  and  by  rival  Christians  against  each 
other.     Even  the  Epicureans  habitually  spoke  of  their  founder 
Epicurus  as   "a  god."     If  we  try  to  analyse  the  concept  of 
^£0?,  thus  loosely  and  widely  used,  we  find  that  the  prominent 
idea  was  that  exemption  from  the  doom  of  death  was  the 
prerogative  of  a  Divine  Being  (cf.  i  Tim.  vi.  i6,  ^' Who  onfy 
hath  immortality  "),  and  that  therefore  the  gift  of  immortality 
is  itself  a  deification.     This   notion  is  distinctly  adopted  by 
several  Christian  writers.     Theophilus  says  (ad  Autol.   ii.  27) 
"that   man,    by   keeping   the   commandments   of  God,  may 
receive  from  him  immortality  as  a  reward  (/xto-^oV),  mid  becotne 
God."     And  Clement  {Stro7?i.  v.   10.  63)  says,   "To  be  im- 
perishable {to   /jly]   (ftOeLpea-Oai)  is  to  share   in  Divinity."     To 
the  same  effect  Hippolytus  {Philos.  x.  34)  says,  "Thy  body 


358  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

shall  be  immortal  and  incorruptible  as  well  as  thy  soul.  For 
thoii  hast  become  God.  All  the  things  that  follow  upon  the 
Divine  nature  God  has  promised  to  supply  to  thee,  for  thou 
wast  deified  in  being  born  to  immortality.^''  ^Vith  regard  to 
later  times,  Harnack  says  that  "after  Theophilus,  Iren^eus, 
Hippolytus,  and  Origen,  the  idea  of  deification  is  found  in  all 
the  Fathers  of  the  ancient  Church,  and  that  in  a  primary 
position.  We  have  it  in  Athanasius,  the  Cappadocians, 
Apollinaris,  Ephraem  Syrus,  Epiphanius,  and  others,  as  also  in 
Cyril,  Sophronius,  and  late  Greek  and  Russian  theologians. 
In  proof  of  it,  Ps.  Ixxxii.  6  ('I  said,  Ye  are  gods')  is  very 
often  quoted."  He  quotes  from  Athanasius,  "  He  became 
man  that  we  might  be  deified  " ;  and  from  Pseudo-Hippolytus, 
"If,  then,  man  has  become  immortal,  he  will  be  God." 

This  notion  grew  within  the  Church  as  chiliastic  and 
apocalyptic  Christianity  faded  away.  A  favourite  phrase  was 
that  the  Incarnation,  etc.,  "abolished  death,"  and  brought 
mankind  into  a  state  of  "  incorruption "  (d^^apcrta).  This 
transformation  of  human  nature,  which  is  also  spoken  of  as 
OeoTT-oLfjcn?,  is  the  highest  work  of  the  Logos.  Athanasius 
makes  it  clear  that  what  he  contemplates  is  no  pantheistic 
merging  of  the  personality  in  the  Deity,  but  rather  a  renovation 
after  the  original  type. 

But  the  process  of  deification  may  be  conceived  of  in  two 
ways  :  (a)  as  essentialisation,  (b)  as  substitution.  The  former 
may  perhaps  be  called  the  more  philosophical  conception,  the 
latter  the  more  religious.  The  former  lays  stress  on  the  high 
calling  of  man,  and  his  potential  greatness  as  the  image  of 
God;  theTatter,  on  his  present  misery  and  alienation,  and  his 
need  of  redemption.  The  former  was  the  teaching  of  the 
Neoplatonic  philosophy,  in  which  the  human  mind  was  the 
throne  of  the  Godhead  ;  the  latter  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
Mysteries,  in  which  salvation  was  conceived  of  realistically  as 
something  imparted  or  infused. 

The  notion  that  salvation  or  deification  consists  in  realising 
our  true  nature,  was  supported  by  the  favourite  doctrine  that 
like  only  can  know  like.  "If  the  soul  were  not  essentially 
Godlike  (^coetSTys),  it  could  never  know  God."  This  doctrine 
might  seem  to  lead  to  the  heretical  conclusion  that  man  is 


APPENDIX  C  359 

6fjLoov(TLo<:  to)  JJarpL  in  the  same  sense  as  Christ.  This  conclusion, 
however,  was  strongly  repudiated  both  by  Clement  and  Origen. 
The  former  {Strom,  xvi.  74)  says  that  men  are  not  /j.epos  6eov 
Koi  Tw  6€<2  ofxoovo-Loi ;  and  Origen  {in  J  oh.  xiii.  25)  says  it  is 
very  impious  to  assert  that  we  are  o/xoovctlol  with  "  the  un- 
begotten  nature."  But  for  those  who  thought  of  Christ 
mainly  as  the  Divine  Logos  or  universal  Reason,  the  line  was 
not  very  easy  to  draw.  Methodius  says  that  every  believer 
must,  through  participation  in  Christ,  be  born  as  a  Christ, — a 
view  which,  if  pressed  logically  (as  it  ought  not  to  be),  implies 
either  that  our  nature  is  at  bottom  identical  with  that  of  Christ, 
or  that  the  life  of  Christ  is  substituted  for  our  own.  The 
difficulty  as  to  whether  the  human  soul  is,  strictly  speaking, 
"  divinae  particula  aurae,"  is  met  by  Proclus  in  the  ingenious 
and  interesting  passage  quoted  p.  34;  "There  are,"  he  says, 
"three  sorts  of  wholes,  (i)  in  which  the  whole  is  anterior  to 
the  parts,  (2)  in  which  the  whole  is  composed  of  the  parts, 
(3)  which  knits  into  one  stuff  the  parts  and  the  whole  (17  toIs 
oAois  TO.  /Acp?/  crwv^atvouo-a)."  This  is  also  the  doctrine  of 
Plotinus,  and  of  Augustine.  God  is  not  split  up  among  His 
creatures,  nor  are  they  essential  to  Him  in  the  same  way  as  He 
is  to  them.  Erigena's  doctrine  of  deification  is  expressed  (not 
very  clearly)  in  the  following  sentence  {De  Div.  Nat.  iii.  9) :  "  Est 
igitur  participatio  divinae  essentiae  assumptio.  Assumptio  vero 
eius  divinae  sapientiae  fusio  quse  est  omnium  substantia  et 
essentia,  et  quaecumque  in  eis  naturaliter  intelliguntur."  Accord- 
ing to  Eckhart,  the  Wesen  of  God  transforms  the  soul  into  itself 
by  means  of  the  "  spark  "  or  "  apex  of  the  soul '"  (equivalent  to 
Plotinus'  KevTpov  ijyvxv%  Eym.  vi.  9.  8),  which  is  "so  akin  to 
God  that  it  is  one  with  God,  and  not  merely  united  to  Him." 

The  history  of  this  doctrine  of  the  spark,  and  of  the  closely- 
connected  word  synteresis,  is  interesting.  The  word  "spark" 
occurs  in  this  connexion  as  early  as  Tatian,  who  says  {Or,  13): 
"  In  the  beginning  the  spirit  was  a  constant  companion  of  the 
soul,  but  forsook  it  because  the  soul  would  not  follow  it ; 
yet  it  retained,  as  it  were,  a  spark  of  its  power,"  etc.  See  also 
Tertullian,  De  Anima,  41.  The  curious  word  synieresis  (often 
misspelt  sinderesis),  which  plays  a  considerable  part  in 
mediaeval  mystical  treatises,  occurs  first  in  Jerome  (on  Ezech.  i.): 


36o  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

"  Quartamque  ponunt  quam  Gr?eci  vocant  a-vvr^prja-tv,   quae 
scintilla  conscientiae  in  Cain  quoque  pectore  non  exstinguitur, 
et  qua  victi  voluptatibus  vel  furore  nos  peccare  sentimus.  .  .  . 
In  Scripturis  [earn]  interdum  vocari  legimus  Spiritum."     Cf. 
Rom.  viii.  26  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  11.     Then  we  find  it  in  Alexander  of 
Hales,  and  in  Bonaventura,  who  {/tinerare,  c.  i)  defines  it  as 
"  apex  mentis  seu  scintilla  "  ;  and  more  precisely  {B reviloquium. 
Pars  2,  c.  11):  "Benignissimus  Deus  quadruplex  contulit  ei 
adiutorium,  scilicet  duplex  naturae  et  duplex  gratiae.     Duplicem 
enim  indidit  rectitudinem  ipsi  naturae,  videlicet  unam  ad  recte 
iudicandum,  et  h?ec  est  rectitudo  conscientiae,  aliam  ad  recte 
volendum,  et  haec  est  synteresis,  cuius  est  remurmurare  contra 
malum  et  stimulare  ad  bonum."     Hermann  of  Fritslar  speaks 
of  it  as  a  power  or  faculty  in  the  soul,  wherein  God  works 
immediately,    "without    means    and    without    intermission." 
Ruysbroek   defines   it   as   the  natural  will  towards  good  im- 
planted in  us  all,  but  weakened  by  sin.     Giseler  says  :  "  This 
spark  was  created  with  the  soul  in  all  men,  and  is  a  clear  light 
in  them,  and  strives  in  every  way  against  sin,  and  impels  steadily 
to  virtue,  and  presses  ever  back  to  the  source  from  which  it 
sprang."     It  has,  says  Lasson,  a  double  meaning  in  mystical 
theology,  {a)  the  ground  of  the  soul ;  {!))  the  highest  ethical 
faculty.     In  Thomas  Aquinas  it  is  distinguished  from  "intel- 
lectus  principiorum,"  the  former  being  the  highest  activity  of 
the   moral   sense,   the    latter    of    the    intellect.     In   Gerson, 
"synteresis"  is  the  highest  of  the  affective  faculties,  the  organ 
of  which  is  the  intelligence  (an  emanation  from  the  highest 
intelligence,  which  is  God  Himself),  and  the  activity  of  which 
is  contemplation.     Speaking   generally,  the  earlier  scholastic 
mystics  regard  it  as  a  remnant  of  the  sinless  state  before  the 
fall,  while  for  Eckhart  and  his  school  it  is  the  core  of  the  soul. 
There  is  another  expression  which  must  be  considered  in 
connexion  with  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of  deification.     This  is 
the  intelledus  agens,  or   vov^  TroiT^rtKos,  which  began  its  long 
history  in  Aristotle  {De  Afiima,  iii.  5).     Aristotle  there  dis- 
tinguishes two  forms  of  Reason,   which  are  related  to  each 
other  as  form  and  matter.     Reason  becomes  all  things,  for  the 
matter  of  anything  is  potentially  the  whole  class  to  which  it 
belongs ;  but  Reason  also  makes  all  things,  that  is  to  say,  it 


APPENDIX  C  361 

communicates  to  things  those  categories  by  which  they  become 
objects   of  thought.      This  higher   Reason    is   separate    and 
impassible  (;((ijpio-Tos  kol  u/xtyr;s  Koi  diraOrj^) ;  it  is  eternal  and 
immortal ;  while  the  passive  reason  perishes  with   the  body. 
The  creative  Reason  is  immanent  both  in  the  human  mind 
and  in  the  external  world  ;  and  thus  only  is  it  possible  for  the 
mind   to    know   things.       Unfortunately,    Aristotle    says  very 
little  more  about  his  voC?  ttoit^tikos,  and  does  not  explain  how 
the  two  Reasons  are  related  to  each  other,  thereby  leaving  the 
problem  for  his  successors  to  work   out.     The  most  fruitful 
attempt  to  form  a  consistent  theory,  on  an  idealistic  basis,  out 
of  the  ambiguous  and  perhaps  irreconcilable  statements  in  the 
Z)e  Afiima,  w^as  made  by  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias  (about 
200  A.D.),  who  taught  that  the  Active  Reason  "is  not  a  part 
or  faculty  of  our  soul,  but  comes  to  us  from  without  " — it  is,  in 
fact,  identified  with  the  Spirit  of  God  working  in  us.     Whether 
Aristotle  would  have  accepted  this  interpretation  of  his  theory 
may    be   doubted ;    but    the    commentary   of    Alexander    of 
Aphrodisias  was  translated  into  Arabic,  and  this  view  of  the 
Active  Reason  became  the  basis  of  the  philosophy  of  Averroes. 
Averroes  teaches  that  it  is  possible  for  the  passive  reason  to 
unite  itself  with  the  Active  Reason,  and  that  this  union  may 
be  attained  or  prepared  for  by  ascetic  purification  and  study. 
But  he  denies  that  the  passive  reason  is  perishable,  not  wishing 
entirely  to  depersonalise  man.      Herein  he  follows,  he  says, 
Themistius,   whose  views  he  tries  to  combine  with  those  of 
Alexander.      Avicenna   introduces   a    celestial    hierarchy,   in 
which  the  higher  intelligences  shed  their  light  upon  the  lower, 
till  they  reach  the  Active  Reason,  which  lies  nearest  to  man, 
"  a  quo,  ut  ipse  dicit,  eflluunt  species  intelligibiles  in  animas 
nostras  "  (Aquinas).     The  doctrine  of  "  monopsychism  "  was,  of 
course,    condemned   by   the    Church.     Aquinas    makes    both 
the  Active   and   Passive   Reason   parts   of  the   human  soul. 
Eckhart,  as  I  have  said  in  the  fourth  Lecture,  at  one  period 
of  his   teaching  expressly   identifies  the   "intellectus  agens" 
with  the   "spark,"  in  reference  to  which  he  says  that  "here 
God's  ground  is  my  ground,  and  my  ground  God's  ground." 
This  doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  the  ground  of  the  soul  is  very 
like   the   Cabbalistic   doctrine   of  the    Neschamah,    and   the 


362  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Neoplatonic  doctrine  of  Nors  (cf.  Stockl,  vol.  ii.  p.  1007).  Eck- 
hart  was  condemned  for  saying,  "aliquid  est  in  anima  quod 
est  increatum  et  increabile ;  si  tota  anima  esset  talis,  esset 
increata  et  increabilis.  Hoc  est  intellectus."  Eckhart  cer- 
tainly says  explicitly  that  "  as  fire  turns  all  that  it  touches  into 
itself,  so  the  birth  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  soul  turns  us  into 
God,  so  that  God  no  longer  knows  anything  in  us  but  His 
Son."  Man  thus  becomes  "  filius  naturalis  Dei,"  instead  of 
only  "  filius  adoptivus."  We  have  seen  that^  Eckhart,  towards 
the  end  of  his  life,  inclined  more  and  more  to  separate  the 
spark,  the  organ  of  Divine  contemplation,  from  the  reason. 
This  is,  of  course,  an  approximation  to  the  other  view  of 
deification — that  of  substitution  or  miraculous  infusion  from 
without,  unless  we  see  in  it  a  tendency  to  divorce  the  per- 
sonality from  the  reason.  Ruysbroek  states  his  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  spark  very  clearly  :  "  The  unity  of  our  spirit  in  God 
exists  in  two  ways,  essentially  and  actively.  The  essential 
existence  of  the  soul,  qu(Z  secundum  (Rternam  ideavi  t?i  Deo  fios 
sumus,  itemqtie  quam  in  ?wbis  habemus,  medii  ac  discriminis 
expers  est,  Spiritus  Deum  in  nuda  natura  essentialiter 
possidet,  et  spiritum  Deus.  Vivit  namque  in  Deo  et  Deus 
in  ipso ;  et  secundum  supreinam  sui  partem  Dei  claritatem 
suscipere  absque  medio  idoneus  est;  quin  etiam  per  seterni 
exemplaris  sui  claritudinem  essetitialiter  ac  personaliter  in  ipso 
lucentis,  secufidum  supremam  vivacitatis  siice  portionem,  in 
divifiam  sese  demittit  ac  detnergit  essentiam,  ibidemque  per- 
severanter  secundum  ideam  manendo  aeternam  suam  possidet 
beatitudinem ;  rursusque  cum  creaturis  omnibus  per  aeternam 
Verbi  generationem  inde  emanans,  in  esse  suo  creato  con- 
stituitur."  The  "natural  union,"  though  it  is  the  first  cause  of 
all  holiness  and  blessedness,  does  not  make  us  holy  and 
blessed,  being  common  to  good  and  bad  alike.  "Similitude" 
to  God  is  the  work  of  grace,  "quae  lux  quaedam  deiformis  est." 
We  cannot  lose  the  "  unitas,"  but  we  can  lose  the  "  similitudo 
quae  est  gratia."  The  highest  part  of  the  soul  is  capable  of 
receiving  a  perfect  and  immediate  impression  of  the  Divine 
essence  ;  by  this  "apex  mentis  "  we  may  "  sink  into  the  Divine 
essence,  and  by  a  new  (continuous)  creation  return  to  our 
created  being  according  to  the  idea  of  God."     The  question 


APPENDIX  C  363 

whether  the  "  ground  of  the  soul "  is  created  or  not  is  obviously 
a  form  of  the  question  which  we  are  now  discussing.  Giseler, 
as  I  have  said,  holds  that  it  was  created  with  the  soul.  Stern- 
gassen  says:  "That  which  God  has  in  eternity  in  uncreated 
wise,  that  has  the  soul  in  time  in  created  wise."  But  the 
author  of  the  Treatise  on  Love,  which  belongs  to  this  period, 
speaks  of  the  spark  as  "the  Active  Reason,  which  is  God" 
And  again,  "This  is  the  Uncreated  in  the  soul  of  which  Master 
Eckhart  speaks."  ,  Suso  seems  to  imply  that  he  believed  the 
ground  of  the  soul  to  be  uncreated,  an  emanation  of  the 
Divine  nature  ;  and  Tauler  uses  similar  language.  Ruysbroek, 
in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Spiritual  Nuptials,  says  that  con- 
templative men  "see  that  they  are  the  same  simple  ground  as  to 
their  uncreated  nature,  and  are  one  with  the  same  light  by 
which  they  see,  and  which  they  see,"  The  later  German 
mystics  taught  that  the  Divine  essence  is  the  material  sub- 
stratum of  the  world,  the  creative  will  of  God  having,  so  to 
speak,  alienated  for  the  purpose  a  portion  of  His  own  essence. 
If,  then,  the  created  form  is  broken  through,  God  Himself 
becomes  the  ground  of  the  soul.  Even  Augustine  countenances 
some  such  notion  when  he  says,  "  From  a  good  man,  or  from 
a  good  angel,  take  away  '  man '  or  '  angel,'  and  you  find  God." 
But  one  of  the  chief  differences  between  the  older  and  later 
Mysticism  is  that  the  former  regarded  union  with  God  as 
achieved  through  the  faculties  of  the  soul,  the  latter  as  inherent 
in  its  essence.  The  doctrine  of  immanence,  more  and  more 
emphasised,  tended  to  encourage  the  belief  that  the  Divine 
element  in  the  soul  is  not  merely  something  potential,  some- 
thing which  the  faculties  may  acquire,  but  is  immanent  and 
basal.  Tauler  mentions  both  views,  and  prefers  the  latter. 
Some  hesitation  may  be  traced  in  the  Theologia  Germanica  on 
this  point  (p.  109,  "Golden  Treasury"  edition):  "The  true 
light  is  that  eternal  Light  which  is  God ;  or  else  it  is  a 
created  light,  but  yet  Divine,  which  is  called  grace."  Our 
Cambridge  Platonists  naturally  revived  this  Platonic  doctrine 
of  deification,  much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  some  of  their 
contemporaries.  Tuckney  speaks  of  their  teaching  as  "a 
kind  of  moral  divinity  minted  only  with  a  little  tincture 
of   Christ   added.      Nay,  a    Platonic  faith    unites   to    God!" 


364  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

Notwithstanding  such  protests,  the  Platonists  persisted  that 
all  true  happiness  consists  in  a  participation  of  God ;  and 
that  "  we  cannot  enjoy  God  by  any  external  conjunction  with 
Him." 

The  question  was  naturally  raised,  "  If  man  by  putting  on 
Christ's  life  can  get  nothing  more  than  he  has  already,  what 
good  will  it  do  him  ? "  The  answer  in  the  Theologia 
Germanica  is  as  follows  :  "  This  life  is  not  chosen  in  order 
to  serve  any  end,  or  to  get  anything  by  it,  but  for  love  of  its 
nobleness,  and  because  God  loveth  and  esteemeth  it  so 
greatly."  It  is  plain  that  any  view  which  regards  man  as 
essentially  Divine  has  to  face  great  difficulties  when  it  comes 
to  deal  with  theodicy.  , 

The  other  view  of  deification,  that  of  a  subsiitiiiion  of  the 
Divine  Will,  or  Life,  or  Spirit,  for  the  human,  cannot  in  history 
be  sharply  distinguished  from  the  theories  which  have  just  been 
mentioned.  But  the  idea  of  substitution  is  naturally  most 
congenial  to  those  who  feel  strongly  "  the  corruption  of  man's 
heart,"  and  the  need  of  deliverance,  not  only  from  our  ghostly 
enemies,  but  from  the  tyranny  of  self.  Such  men  feel  that 
there  must  be  a  real  change,  affecting  the  very  depths  of  our 
personality.  Righteousness  must  be  imparted,  not  merely 
imputed.  And  there  is  a  death  to  be  died  as  well  as  a  life  to 
be  lived.  The  old  man  must  die  before  the  new  man,  which 
is  "not  I  but  Christ,"  can  be  born  in  us.  The  "  birth  of  God 
(or  Christ)  in  the  soul"  is  a  favourite  doctrine  of  the  later 
German  mystics.  Passages  from  the  fourteenth  century  writers 
have  been  quoted  in  my  fourth  and  fifth  Lectures.  The 
following  from  Giseler  may  be  added:  "God  will  be  born, 
not  in  the  Reason,  not  in  the  Will,  but  in  the  most  inward 
part  of  the  essence,  and  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul  become 
aware  thereof.  Thereby  the  soul  passes  into  mere  passivity, 
and  lets  God  work."  They  all  insist  on  an  immediate,  sub- 
stantial, personal  indwelling,  which  is  beyond  what  Aquinas 
and  the  Schoolmen  taught.  The  Lutheran  Church  condemns 
those  who  teach  that  only  the  gifts  of  God,  and  not  God 
Himself,  dwell  in  the  believer ;  and  the  English  Platonists,  as 
we  have  seen,  insist  that  "  an  infant  Christ "  is  really  born  in 
the  soul.     The  German  mystics  arc  equally  emphatic  about 


APPENDIX  C  365 

the  annihilation  of  the  old  man,  which  is  the  condition  of  this 
indwelling  Divine  life.  In  quietistic  (Nominalist)  Mysticism 
the  usual  phrase  was  that  the  will  (or,  better,  "self-will")  must 
be  utterly  destroyed,  so  that  the  Divine  Will  may  take  its 
place.  But  Crashaw's  "  leave  nothing  of  myself  in  me," 
represents  the  aspiration  of  the  later  Catholic  Mysticism 
generally.  St.  Juan  of  the  Cross  says,  "The  soul  must  lose 
entirely  its  human  knowledge  and  human  feelings,  in  order  to 
receive  Divine  knowledge  and  Divine  feelings " ;  it  will  then 
live  "as  it  were  outside  itself,"  in  a  state  "more  proper  to  the 
future  than  to  the  present  life."  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
dangerous  such  teaching  may  be  to  weak  heads.  A  typical 
example,  at  a  much  earlier  date,  is  that  of  Mechthild  of 
Hackeborn  (about  1 240).  It  was  she  who  said,  "  My  soul 
swims  in  the  Godhead  like  a  fish  in  water ! "  and  who 
believed  that,  in  answer  to  her  prayers,  God  had  so 
united  Himself  with  her  that  she  saw  with  His  eyes,  and 
heard  with  His  ears,  and  spoke  with  His  mouth.  Many 
similar  examples  might  be  found  among  the  mediaeval 
mystics. 

Between  the  two  ideas  of  essentialisation  and  of  substitution 
comes  that  of  gradual  transformation^  which,  again,  cannot  in 
history  be  separated  from  the  other  two.  It  has  the  obvious 
advantage  of  not  regarding  deification  as  an  opus  operatum,  but 
as  a  process,  as  a  hope  rather  than  a  fact.  A  favourite  maxim 
with  mystics  who  thought  thus,  was  that  "  love  changes  the 
lover  into  the  beloved."  Louis  of  Granada  often  recurs  to 
this  thought. 

The  best  mystics  rightly  see  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Divinity 
of  Christ  the  best  safeguard  against  the  extravagances  to  which 
the  notion  of  deification  easily  leads.  Particularly  instructive 
here  are  the  warnings  which  are  repeated  again  and  again  in  the 
Theologia  Germanica.  "  The  false  light  dreameth  itself  to  be 
God,  and  taketh  to  itself  what  belongeth  to  God  as  God  is  in 
eternity  without  the  creature.  Now,  God  in  eternity  is  without 
contradiction,  suffering,  and  grief,  and  nothing  can  hurt  or 
vex  Him.  But  with  God  when  He  is  made  man  it  is  otherwise." 
"Therefore  the  false  light  thinketh  and  declareth  itself  to  be 
above  all  works,  words,  customs,  laws,  and  order,  and  above 


366  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

that  life  which  Christ  led  in  the  body  which  He  possessed  in 
His  holy  human  nature.  So  likewise  it  professeth  to  remain 
unmoved  by  any  of  the  creature's  works  ;  whether  they  be  good 
or  evil,  against  God  or  not,  is  all  alike  to  it ;  and  it  keepeth 
itself  apart  from  all  things,  like  God  in  eternity ;  and  all  that 
belongeth  to  God  and  to  no  creature  it  taketh  to  itself,  and 
vainly  dreameth  that  this  belongeth  to  it."  "  It  doth  not  set 
up  to  be  Christ,  but  the  eternal  God.  And  this  is  because 
Christ's  life  is  distasteful  and  burdensome  to  nature,  therefore 
it  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  but  to  be  God  in  eternity 
and  not  man,  or  to  be  Christ  as  He  was  after  His  resurrection, 
is  all  easy  and  pleasant  and  comfortable  to  nature,  and  so  it 
holdeth  it  to  be  best." 

These  three  views  of  the  manner  in  which  we  may  hope  to 
become  "  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature,"  are  all  aspects  of  the 
truth.  If  we  believe  that  we  were  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  then  in  becoming  like  Him  we  are  realising  our  true  idea, 
and  entering  upon  the  heritage  which  is  ours  already  by  the 
will  of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  believe  that  we  have 
fallen  very  far  from  original  righteousness,  and  have  no  power 
of  ourselves  to  help  ourselves,  then  we  must  believe  in  a 
deliverance  from  outside,  an  acquisition  of  a  righteousness  not 
our  own,  which  is  either  imparted  or  imputed  to  us.  And, 
thirdly,  if  we  are  to  hope  for  a  real  change  in  our  relations  to 
God,  there  must  be  a  real  change  in  our  personality, — a  pro- 
gressive transmutation,  which  without  breach  of  continuity  will 
bring  us  to  be  something  different  from  what  we  were.  The 
three  views  are  not  mutually  exclusive.  As  Vatke  says,  "  The 
influence  of  Divine  grace  does  not  differ  from  the  immanent 
development  of  the  deepest  Divine  germ  of  life  in  man,  only 
that  it  here  stands  over-against  man  regarded  as  a  finite  and 
separate  being — as  something  external  to  himself.  If  the 
Divine  image  is  the  true  nature  of  man,  and  if  it  only  possesses 
reality  in  virtue  of  its  identity  with  its  type  or  with  the  Logos, 
then  there  can  be  no  true  self-determination  in  man  which  is 
not  at  the  same  time  a  self-determination  of  the  type  in  its 
image."  We  cannot  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  operations 
of  our  own  personality  and  those  of  God  in  us.  Personality 
escapes    from    all    attempts    to   limit  and   define  it.      It   is  a 


APPENDIX  C  367 

concept  which  stretches  into  the  infinite,  and  therefore  can 
only  be  represented  to  thought  symboHcally.  The  personaUty 
must  not  be  identified  with  the  "spark,"  the  "Active  Reason," 
or  whatever  we  Hke  to  call  the  highest  part  of  our  nature. 
Nor  must  we  identify  it  with  the  changing  Moi  (as  Fenelon 
calls  it).  The  personality,  as  I  have  said  in  Lecture  I. 
(P-  33)>  is  both  the  end — the  ideal  self,  and  the  changing 
Moi^  and  yet  neither.  If  either  thesis  is  held  divorced  from 
its  antithesis,  the  thought  ceases  to  be  mystical.  The  two 
ideals  of  self-assertion  and  self-sacrifice  are  both  true  and 
right,  and  both,  separately,  unattainable.  They  are  opposites 
which  are  really  necessary  to  each  other.  I  have  quoted  from 
Vatke's  attempt  to  reconcile  grace  and  free-will :  another 
extract  from  a  writer  of  the  same  school  may  perhaps  be 
helpful.  "  In  the  growth  of  our  experience,"  says  Green,  "  an 
animal  organism,  which  has  its  history  in  time,  gradually 
becomes  the  vehicle  of  an  eternally  complete  consciousness. 
What  we  call  our  mental  history  is  not  a  history  of  this  con- 
sciousness, which  in  itself  can  have  no  history,  but  a  history  of 
the  process  by  which  the  animal  organism  becomes  its  vehicle. 
'  Our  consciousness '  may  mean  either  of  two  things  :  either  a 
function  of  the  animal  organism,  which  is  being  made,  gradually 
and  with  interruptions,  a  vehicle  of  the  eternal  consciousness  ; 
or  that  eternal  consciousness  itself,  as  making  the  animal 
organism  its  vehicle  and  subject  to  certain  limitations  in  so 
doing,  but  retaining  its  essential  characteristic  as  independent 
of  time,  as  the  determinant  of  becoming,  which  has  not  and 
does  not  itself  become.  The  consciousness  which  varies  from 
moment  to  moment  ...  is  consciousness  in  the  former  sense. 
It  consists  in  what  may  properly  be  called  phenomena.  .  .  . 
The  latter  consciousness  .  .  .  constitutes  our  knowledge " 
{Prolegomena  to  Ethics,  pp.  72,  73).  Analogous  is  our  moral 
history.  But  no  Christian  can  believe  that  our  life,  mental 
or  moral,  is  or  ever  can  be  necessary  to  God  in  the  same  sense 
in  which  He  is  necessary  to  our  existence.  For  practical 
religion,  the  symbol  which  we  shall  find  most  helpful  is  that  of  a 
progressive  transformation  of  our  nature  after  the  pattern  of 
God  revealed  in  Christ ;  a  process  which  has  as  its  end  a  real 
union  with  God,  though  this  end  is,  from  the  nature  of  things, 


368  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

unrealisable  in  time.  It  is,  as  I  have  said  in  the  body  of  the 
Lectures,  d.  progessus  ad  infinitum^  the  consummation  of  which 
we  are  nevertheless  entitled  to  claim  as  already  ours  in  a  tran- 
scendental sense,  in  virtue  of  the  eternal  purpose  of  God  made 
known  to  us  in  Christ. 


APPENDIX    D 

The  Mystical  Interpretation  of  the  Song  of  Solomon 

The  headings  to  the  chapters  in  the  Authorised  Version 
give  a  sort  of  authority  to  the  "mystical"  interpretation  of 
Solomon's  Song,  a  poem  which  was  no  doubt  intended  by  its 
author  to  be  simply  a  romance  of  true  love,  f  According  to  our 
translators,  the  Lover  of  the  story  is  meant  for  Christ,  and 
the  Maiden  for  the  Church.  But  the  tendency  of  Catholic 
Mysticism  has  been  to  make  the  individual  soul  the  bride  of 
Christ,  and  to  treat  the  Song  of  Solomon  as  symbolic  of 
"spiritual  nuptials"  between  Him  and  the  individual  "contem- 
plative." It  is  this  latter  notion,  the  growth  of  which  I  wish 
to  trace. 

Erotic  Mysticism  is  no  part  of  Platonism.  That  "sensuous 
love  of  the  unseen "  (as  Pater  calls  it),  which  the  Platonist 
often  seems  to  aim  at,  has  more  of  admiration  and  less  of 
tenderness  than  the  emotion  which  we  have  now  to  consider. 
The  notion  of  a  spiritual  marriage  between  God  and  the  soul 
seems  to  have  come  from  the  Greek  Mysteries,  through  the 
Alexandrian  Jews  and  Gnostics.  Representations  of  "marriages 
of  gods  "  were  common  at  the  Mysteries,  especially  at  those  of 
the  least  reputable  kind  (cf.  Lucian,  Alexander,  38).  In  other 
instances  the  ceremony  of  initiation  was  made  to  resemble  a 
marriage,  and  the  fxva-T-qs  was  greeted  with  the  words  x°^^P^r 
vvfxfjiu.  And  among  the  Jews  of  the  first  century  there  existed 
a  system  of  Mysteries,  probably  copied  from  Eleusis.  They 
had  their  greater  and  their  lesser  Mysteries,  and  we  hear  that 
among  their  secret  doctrines  was  "marriage  with  God."  In 
Philo  we  find  strange  and  fantastic  speculations  on  this  subject. 
For  instance,  he  argues  that  as  the  Bible  does  not  mentions 
24 


370  CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM 

Abraham,  Jacob,  and  Moses  as  yvw/jt'^ovras  ras  yvvaLKa<;,  we 
are  meant  to  believe  that  their  children  were  not  born  naturally. 
But  he  allegorises  the  women  of  the  Pentateuch  in  such  a  way 
(Aoyo)  /xev  elcTL  yvvaiKes,  epyw  Sc  dperat)  that  it  is  difficult  tO 
say  what  he  wishes  us  to  believe  in  a  literal  sense.  The 
Valentinian  Gnostics  seem  to  have  talked  much  of  "spiritual 
marriage,"  and  it  was  from  them  that  Origen  got  the  idea 
of  elaborating  the  conception.  But,  curiously  enough,  it  is 
TertuUian  who  first  argues  that  the  body  as  well  as  the  soul 
is  the  bride  of  Christ.  "  If  the  soul  is  the  bride,'  he  says,  "the 
flesh  is  the  dowry  "  (de  Resurr.  63).  Origen,  however,  really 
began  the  mischief  in  his  homilies  and  commentary  on  the 
Song  of  Solomon.  The  prologue  of  the  commentary  in  Rufinus 
commences  as  follows :  "  Epithalamium  libellus  hie,  id  est 
nuptiale  carmen,  dramatis  in  modum  mihi  videtur  a  Salomone 
conscriptus,  quem  cecinit  instar  nubentis  sponste,  et  erga 
sponsum  suum  qui  est  sermo  Dei  ccelesti  amore  flagrantis. 
Adamavit  enim  eum  sive  anima,  quc^  ad  imaginem  eius  facta 
est,  sive  ecclesia."  Harnack  says  that  Gregory  of  Nyssa  exhibits 
the  conception  in  its  purest  and  most  attractive  form  in  the 
East,  and  adds,  "  We  can  point  to  very  few  Greek  Fathers  in 
whom  the  figure  does  not  occur."  (There  is  a  learned  note 
on  the  subject  by  Louis  de  Leon,  which  corroborates  this 
statement  of  Harnack.  He  refers  to  Chrysostom,  Theodoret, 
Irenaeus,  Hilary,  Cyprian,  Augustine,  TertuUian,  Ignatius, 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Cyril,  Leo,  Photius,  and  Theophylact  as 
calling  Christ  the  bridegroom  of  souls.)  In  the  West,  we 
find  it  in  Ambrose,  less  prominently  in  Augustine  and  Jerome. 
Dionysius  seizes  on  the  phrase  of  Ignatius,  "  My  love  has  been 
crucified,"  to  justify  erotic  imagery  in  devotional  writing. 

Bernard's  homilies  on  the  Song  of  Solomon  gave  a  great 
impetus  to  this  mode  of  symbolism ;  but  even  he  says  that  the 
Church  and  not  the  individual  is  the  bride  of  Christ.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  enforced  celibacy  and  virginity  of  the 
monks  and  nuns  led  them,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  to 
transfer  to  the  human  person  of  Christ  (and  to  a  much  slighter 
extent,  to  the  Virgin  Mary)  a  measure  of  those  feelings  which 
could  find  no  vent  in  their  external  lives.  We  can  trace  this, 
in  a  wholesome  and  innocuous  form,  in  the  visions  of  Juliana 


APPENDIX  D  371 

of  Norwich.  Quotations  from  Ruysbroek's  Spiritual  Nuptials, 
and  from  Suso,  bearing  on  the  same  point,  are  given  in  the 
body  of  the  Lectures.  Good  specimens  of  devotional  poetry 
of  this  type  might  be  selected  from  Crashaw  and  Quarles.  (A 
few  specimens  are  included  in  Palgrave's  Golden  Treasury  of 
Sacred  Song.)  Fenelon's  language  on  the  subject  is  not  quite  so 
pleasing ;  it  breathes  more  of  sentimentality  than  of  reverence. 
The  contemplative,  he  says,  desires  "  une  simple  presence  de 
Dieu  purement  amoureuse,"  and  speaks  to  Christ  always 
"  comme  I'epouse  a  I'epoux." 

The  Sufis  or  Mohammedan  mystics  use  erotic  language  very 
freely,  and  appear,  like  true  Asiatics,  to  have  attempted  to  give 
a  sacramental  or  symbolic  character  to  the  indulgence  of  their 
passions.  From  this  degradation  the  mystics  of  the  cloister 
were  happily  free ;  but  a  morbid  element  is  painfully  prominent 
in  the  records  of  many  medieval  saints,  whose  experiences  are 
classified  by  Ribet.  He  enumerates — (i)  "Divine  touches," 
which  Scaramelli  defines  as  "real  but  purely  spiritual  sensa- 
tions, by  which  the  soul  feels  the  intimate  presence  of  God, 
and  tastes  Him  with  great  delight "  ;  (2)  "  The  wound  of  love," 
of  which  one  of  his  authorities  says,  "  hsec  pcena  tam  suavis 
est  quod  nulla  sit  in  hac  vita  delectatio  qus  magis  satisfaciat." 
It  is  to  this  experience  that  Cant.  ii.  5  refers  :  "  Fulcite  me 
floribus,  stipate  me  malis,  quia  amore  langueo."  Sometimes 
the  wound  is  not  purely  spiritual :  St.  Teresa,  as  was  shown 
by  a  post-mortem  examination,  had  undergone  a  miraculous 
"  transverberatioa  of  the  heart  ":  "et  pourtant  elle  survecut 
pres  de  vingt  ans  \  cette  blessure  mortelle  "  !  (3)  Catherine  of 
Siena  was  betrothed  to  Christ  with  a  ring,  which  remained 
always  on  her  fingers,  though  visible  to  herself  alone.  Lastly, 
in  the  revelations  of  St.  Gertrude  we  read:  "  Feria  tertia  Pasch^e 
dum  communicatura  desideraret  a  Domino  ut  per  idem  sacra- 
mentum  vivificum  renovare  dignaretur  in  anima  eius  matri- 
monium  spirituale  quod  ipsi  in  spiritu  erat  desponsata  per 
fidem  et  religionem,  necnon  per  virginalis  pudicitias  integritatem, 
Dominus  blanda  serenitate  respondit :  hoc,  inquiens,  indubi- 
tanter  faciam.  Sic  incUnatus  ad  earn  blandissimo  affectu  eam 
ad  se  stringens  osculum  praedulce  animse  eius  infixit,"  etc. 

The  employment  of  erotic  imagery  to  express  the  individual 


372  CHRISTIAN   MYSTICISM 

relation  between  Christ  and  the  soul  is  always  dangerous ; 
but  this  objection  does  not  apply  to  the  statement  that  "  the 
Church  is  the  bride  of  Christ."  Even  in  the  Old  Testament 
we  find  the  chosen  people  so  spoken  of  (cf.  Isa.  liv.  5  ;  Jer.  iii. 
14).  Professor  Cheyne  thinks  that  the  Canticles  were  inter- 
preted in  this  sense,  and  that  this  is  why  the  book  gained 
admission  into  the  Canon.  In  the  New  Testament,  St.  Paul 
uses  the  symbol  of  marriage  in  Rom.  vii.  1-4  ;  i  Cor.  xi.  3 ; 
Eph.  V.  23-33.  On  the  last  passage  Canon  Gore  says  :  "The 
love  of  Christ — the  removal  of  obstacles  to  His  love  by  atoning 
sacrifice — the  act  of  spiritual  purification — the  gradual  sancti- 
fication — the  consummated  union  in  glory  ;  these  are  the 
moments  of  the  Divine  process  of  redemption,  viewed  from 
the  side  of  Christ,  which  St.  Paul  specifies."  This  use  of  the 
"  sacrament "  of  marriage  (as  a  symbol  of  the  mystical  union 
between  Christ  and  the  Church),  which  alone  has  the  sanction 
of  the  New  Testament,  is  one  which,  we  hope,  the  Church  will 
always  treasure.  The  more  personal  relation  also  exists,  and 
the  fervent  devotion  which  it  elicits  must  not  be  condemned ; 
though  we  are  forced  to  remember  that  in  our  mysteriously 
constituted  minds  the  highest  and  lowest  emotions  lie  very 
near  together,  and  that  those  who  have  chosen  a  life  of  detach- 
ment from  earthly  ties  must  be  especially  on  their  guard  against 
the  "  occasional  revenges "  which  the  lower  nature,  when 
thwarted,  is  always  plotting  against  the  higher. 


INDEX 


Acosmism,  distinguished  from  Pan- 
theism, I20-2I  ;  in  Eckhart,  154  ; 
in  Juan  of  the  Cross,  243. 

Adam  of  St.  Victor,  38. 

Agrippa,  Cornelius,  273. 

Albertus  Magnus,  17,  140-46. 

Alejo  Venegas,  216. 

Alexander  of  Aphrodisias,  361. 

Alexander  of  Hales,  360. 

Alexandrianism,  81  sq.  See  P/a/on- 
ism  and  Neoplatonism. 

Allegorism,  3,  43  ;  in  Dionysius, 
109  ;  270-72,  369. 

Aloinhrados,  The,  217. 

Amalric  of  Bena,  1 38-9. 

Amiel's  Journal  Intime,  96,  99, 
122,  156,  313. 

"Analysis,"  method  of,  87.  See 
Negative  Koad.  ^^ 

Angela  of  Foligno,  97. 

Anima  Mitndi,  29,  273,  321, 

Animism,  262. 

Antinomianism,  at  Corinth,  72  ;  of 
Amalricians,  etc.,  139,  140;  cen- 
sured by  Ruysbroek,  171  ;  259. 

Antithesis  as  a  law  of  being,  in 
Bohme,  279. 

Antony,  St.,  237. 

Apocalypse,  74. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  147,  149,  243, 
255,  360-61. 

Aristobulus,  83. 

Aristotle,  116,  141,  149,  24S,  266, 
360-61. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  on  St.  Paul,  65. 

Asceticism,  its  connexion  with  Mys- 
ticism, II  ;  of  Suso,  173  ;  of 
Juan  of  the  Cross,  226 ;  244,  308, 

319- 
Association  of  ideas,  343-4. 
Athanasius,  358. 


Atomists,  22. 

Augustine,  27,  29,  35,  lOO,  128-32, 

202,  219,  363. 
Authority  in  Religion,  Seat  of,  329, 

330. 
Averroes,  149,  361. 
Avicebron,  34,  215. 
Avicenna,  361. 
Avila,  Juan  d',  17,  216-7. 


B 


Basilides,  no,  279. 

Beaumont,  Joseph,  124. 

Beauty,  Augustine  on,  129  ;  322. 

Bede,  251. 

Beghards,  148. 

Benedict,  10. 

Berengar,  138. 

Bernard,  9,  1 40-41,  239,  240,  3  70. 

Bigg,  C,  86,  94,  98,  no,  131. 

Birth  of  Christ  in  the  Soul,  35,  280, 

364.     See  Ivinianeitce. 
Bohme,  Jacob,  277-86. 
Bonaventura,    16,  28,    35,    140-42, 

146,  335.  360. 
Bonchitte,  341. 
Bosanquet,  B.,  251. 
Bossuet,  9,  234-42. 
Bradley,  F.  H.,  25,  107,  306. 
Browning,  Robert,  54,  31S-20. 
Bruno,  Giordano,  29,  302. 
Burnet,  Bp.,  231-3. 


C 


Cabbalism,  268,  361. 
Caird,  E.,  139. 
Caird,  J.,  157,  322-3. 
Cambridge  Platonists.    See  Platon- 
ists. 


374 


INDEX 


Campanella,  302. 

Carlstadt,  196. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  320. 

Carmelites,  224. 

Catherine  of  Genoa,  239. 

Catherine  of  Siena,  371. 

Cheyne,  372. 

Chivalry  and  Mysticism,  176. 

Christina,  144. 

Chrysostom,  61. 

Church,    Mystical  Union  of  Christ 

and  the,  68,  256,  370-72. 
Clement   of  Alexandria,  38,  86-9, 

349.  350.  354,  357,  359- 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  27,  36. 

Contemplation,  the  highest  stage, 
10,  12,  21  ;  in  the  medieval 
mystics,  141-2  ;  in  Ruysbroek, 
170,  227;  "infused  contempla- 
tion," 232  ;  in  Fenelon,  237  ;  in 
Wordsworth,  311. 

Conybeare,  F.  C,  on  Philo,  83. 

Corderius,  335. 

Cousin,  v.,  124,  347. 

Cowper,  W. ,  235. 

Crashaw,  212,  365. 

Creation  of  the  World,  in  Erigena, 
136;  in  Eckhart,  151-2  ;   182-3. 

Cunninghame  Graham,  Mrs.,  on 
Teresa,  218. 

Cyril  of  Alexandria,  47,  301. 


D 


Dante,  24,  76,  176,  2S4. 

"  Darkness,"  109,  199,  200,  22S. 

Darwin,  C,  325. 

Degeneration,  344. 

Deification,  13  ;  in  Philo,  83  ;  by 
gift  of  immortality,  in  Clement, 
88;  in  Eckhart,  155-9,  163;  in 
fourteenth  century  mystics,  189- 
93,  232  ;  in  Emerson,  321  ; 
discussion  of  the  doctrine,  356- 
68. 

Denifle,  149,  180. 

"  Dereliction,"  207,  221. 

Destiny  of  the  world,  328. 

Diego  de  Stella,  216. 

Diodorus,  351. 

Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  100. 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  104-22  ; 

257- 
Disinterested  love,  8,  234-42. 


Drummond,  H.,  323. 

Dualism,  ascribed  to  St.  John,  58  ; 
rejected  by  Dionysius,  106  ;  of 
Ortlieb,  etc.,  140;  of  scholastic 
Mysticism,  143,  184  ;  of  Spanish 
mystics,  225,  262  ;  of  Herrmann, 

347- 
Du  Prel,  337-8. 


Eckhart,  148-64,  175,  359,  362. 

Ecstasy,  14-19  ;  in  Plotinus,  97-9  ; 
in  Richard  of  St.  Victor,  142  ; 
the  Cambridge  Platonistson,  292  ; 
in  Wordsworth,  292  ;  in  the 
Greek  mysteries,  353. 

Edinburgh  Review,  on  Catholic 
mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  250. 

Emanation,  in  Plotinus,  94 ;  in 
Hierotheus,  102 ;  in  Dionysius, 
107  ;  in  Erigena,  136  ;  con- 
trasted with  immanence,  152. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  54,  78,  252, 
320-22. 

English  Mysticism,  characteristics 
of,  197,  294. 

Erigena,  John    Scotus,   26,    133-8, 

259- 

Erotic  imagery,  in  Dionysius,  no; 
in  Suso,  174;  based  on  Song  of 
Solomon,  369-72. 

Eschatology,  of  St.  John,  53  ;  of 
St.  Paul,  64,  65  ;  of  Bohme  and 
Law,  283  ;  of  the  Cambridge 
Platonists,  293  ;  in  relation  to 
the  reality  of  time,  327-9. 

Eternity,  in  St.  John,  53-5 ;  in 
Tauler,  193. 

Eunapius,  22. 

Eusebius,  47. 

"Evidences,"  60,  324-7. 

Evil,  problem  of,  25  ;  in  Plotinus, 
95-6  ;  in  Dionysius,  106-7  ',  '" 
Augustine,  130  ;  in  Erigena, 
134-5,  137  ;  in  Tauler,  185  ;  in 
Juliana  of  Norwich,  207-8  ; 
alleged  optimism  of  the  mystics, 
314  ;  Emerson  on,  321. 

Evolution,  in  Plotinus,  94  ;  modern 
evolutionary  pantheism,  not  in 
Eckhart,  153;  no  development 
in  the  Divine  nature,  323. 

Ewald,  10,  339. 


INDEX 


375 


Externals  of  religion,  disparagement 
of,  attributed  to  St.  Paul,  70-72  ; 
in  Amalric,  etc.,  139  ;  in  Sebas- 
tian Frank,  etc.,  196  ;  in  Bohtne, 
281  ;  necessity  of  maintaining, 
329- 


Faber,  166. 

Faith,  love  and,  8  ;  in  St.  John, 
50;  in  St.  Paul,  60-61  ;  defined 
as  blind  assent,  by  Juan  of  the 
Cross,  225  ;  in  W.  Law,  282. 

"  False  Light,"  The,  193,  199,  365. 

Fechner,  G.  T.,  29,  302. 

Fenelon,  9,  13,  3^,  235-42,  37i- 

Fetishism,  262. 

Fichte,  53. 

Ficinus,  80. 

"Fans  Vif(v"  34,  215. 

Fox,  George,  72,  2S4,  329. 

Francis  de  Sales,  17,  230-31,  237. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  302. 

Frank,  Sebastian,  196. 

Free  Spirit,  sects  of,  139,  148. 

"  Friends  of  God,"  iSo. 

Frothingham,  on  Hierotheus,  102. 

"  Finiklein'''  in  Eckhart.  See 
S/ark. 


Galen,  305,  353. 

Gamaliel,  223. 

German   Theology.      See   Theologia 

Gerinatiica. 
Gerson,  146-8,  335,  360. 
Gertrude,  371. 
Giseler,  360,  364. 
'■'■Gnosis"    52,     81  ;    in    Clement, 

86-7  ;  in  Origen,  89. 
Gnosticism,  S1-2,  353. 
Goethe,    2,   6,    76,    124,   248,    250, 

251,  254,  298,  338. 
Gore,  C,  372. 
Gorres,  264. 
Grau,  57. 

Green,  T.  H.,  367. 
Gregory   of  Nvssa,    25,    loO,    257, 

370. 
Gunkel,  72. 
Guyon,  Madame,  234-5, 


H 


Hamilton,  Sir  W.,  112. 

Harnack,  16,  21,  104,  I40,  253, 
260,  344-5; 

Hartmann,  Von,  336-7. 

Hatch,  349. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,  72-3. 

Hegel,  96,  119,  323,  331, 

Henotheism,  39. 

Heppe,  218. 

Heraclitus,  30,  77,  124,  279. 

Hermann  of  Fritslar,  163,  360. 

Herrmann,  345-6. 

Hesychasts,  227,  243. 

Hierotheus,  102-4. 

Hilton  or  Hylton,  Walter,  197-201. 

Hinton,  James,  25,  241,  315,  348. 

Hippolytus,  357. 

Historical  facts  of  Christianity, 
alleged  neglect  of,  in  St.  Paul, 
69,  70  ;  in  Origen,  95  ;  in  Eck- 
hart, 154  ;  not  proved  by  the 
"inner  light,"  326;  Ritschlian 
school  on,  345-7. 

Holy  Spirit.     See  Spirit. 

Hooker,  iii. 

Hugo  of  St.  Victor,  140-42. 

Hume,  308. 

Hunt's  Pmitheisnt  and  Ckristian- 
iiy,  113,  268. 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  308. 

Huysmans,  262. 


I 


lamblichus,  105,  131. 

Ibn  Tophail,  104. 

Ideas,  Jewish  and  Platonic  doctrines 
of,  40-41  ;  idealism  of  Plotinus, 
91  ;  of  Eckhart,  152,  183. 

Ignatius,  IIO,  257. 

Illumination  as  the  second  stage  of 
the  mystic's  ascent,  10,  12. 

"Illumines"  in  France,  217. 

Illusions,    education   by  means    of, 

73-. 
Imagmation,      Plotmus     on,     226 ; 

Juan    of     the     Cross    on,     226 ; 

defined  by  Aristotle   and    Philo- 

stratus,     266 ;    Wordsworth    on, 

309- 
Imitation  of  Chnst,  The,  194-5- 
Immanence :      Mysticism     is     the 


376 


INDEX 


attempt  to  realise  it,  5;  the  im- 
manent Deity  is  not  divided,  34  ; 
in  Fliilo,  84 ;  in  Methodius,  100, 
121;  in  Amahic,  139;  in 
Eckhart,  155-8,  162,  183;  in 
Weigel,  275  ;  in  Bohme,  280  ;  in 
the  Cambridge  Platonists,  290  sq. ; 
its  nature,  340,  343,  363. 

Immortality,  considered  to  be  con- 
ferred by  sacraments,  257- 

Incarnation,  the  central  fact  in 
history,  35  ;  St.  John  on,  47,  49, 

55-  .  ... 

Indian   philosophy   of  religion,   its 

influence  on  Christian  Mysticism, 

loi,  112,  118,  147. 
Infinite,  The,   as  a  name  of  God, 

10,  98,  1 1 3-4,  129. 
Inquisition,  The,  148,  214. 
' Jiitellectus  Agens,"    149,    158-9, 

288,  360-61. 
Irensus,  193. 

J 

Jerome,  359. 

Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History 

of  Religion,  271. 
Johannine  Christianity,  44,  324. 
John,  St.,   the  mystical  element  in 

his  Gospel,  44-59. 
John  a  Jesu  Maria,  335. 
Juan  d'Avila,  17,  216-7. 
Juan  of  the  Cross,  114,  212,  223- 

30,  365- 
Julian  or  Juliana  of  Norwich,  201-9. 
Justin  Martyr,  253. 


K 

Kabisch,  65. 

Kant,  149,  251. 

Keble,  on  allegorism,  272. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  9,  194-5. 

Kepler,  298. 

Kingsley,  C,  27,  341-2. 

Knox,  Alexander,  286. 

Krause,  7,  121. 


Labadie,  293. 
Lacordaire,  19. 


Lasson,  120,  149  sq.  ;  342-3,  360. 

Law,  W.,  8,  278-86. 

Leathes,  S.,  46. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  263,  270. 

Legalism,  36. 

Leibnitz,  288. 

Lilienfeld,  57,  241. 

Logos,  the,  as  cosmic  principle, 
29 ;  in  St.  John,  46-7 ;  in  St. 
Paul,  65-6  ;  in  Clement,  86 ;  in 
Origen,  90 ;  identified  with 
Platonic  NoOs,  94  ;  in  the  later 
Greek  Fathers,  loi ;  in  Dionysius, 
107;  in  Erigena,  136;  in  Eck- 
hart, 151  ;  in  J.  Smith,  2S9. 

Lotze,  6,  31,  132,  314. 

Louis  de  Granada,  216-7. 

Louis  de  Leon,  216-7  '<  370- 

Love,  the  hierophant  of  the  Christian 
mysteries,  8  ;  in  St.  John,  45  ; 
in  Dionysius,  no;  in  Augustine, 
131;  in  Law,  282;  316-7; 
Browning  on,  318-9,  365.  See 
also  Disinterested. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  248. 

Lucretius,  265,  302. 

Luthardt,  250. 

Luther,  196. 

M 

Macarius,  20. 

M'Taggart,  119. 

Maeterlinck,  1 7 1-2. 

Magic,  131,  261,  266,  269. 

Manilius,  166. 

Maximus,  257. 

Mechthild  of  Hackeborn,  365. 

Meditation  distinguished  from  con- 
templation, 227,  231. 

Methodius,  99,  100,  359. 

Microcosm,  man  as,  34-5  ;  in 
Erigena,  137  ;  in  the  later 
Neoplatonists,  268 ;  in  Paracelsus, 
etc.,  274. 

Migne,  Abbe,  144,  336. 

Milton,  248. 

Miracle.     See  Siipernaturalism. 

Modalism  in  Erigena,  135. 

Molinos,  10,  231-4. 

Monopsychism,  361. 

More,  Henry,  18,  20,  38,  57,  286. 

Mysteries,  the  Greek,  2  ;  technical 
terms  of,  in  Clement,  88,  in 
Dionysius,    105 ;    their   influence 


INDEX 


377 


on  Christian  Mysticism,  349-55, 

369. 
"Mystery,"  in  St.  Paul,  86. 
"Mistical"    interpretation   of   the 

Bible,  43.      See  AUegorisui. 
"  Mystical  phenomena,"'  3,  364-5. 

See  also  Supey-naturalisin. 
Mystical  union,  in  St.  John,  51  ;  in 

St.    Paul,    67-8 ;    in    Augustine, 

1 30  ;  sacraments  are  symbols  of, 

255-6,  340,  346,  372. 


N 


Nature,  God  in,  26,  27,  40,  249  sq., 
276,  2S3,  294,  299  sq.;  Nature- 
Worship  in  the  Mysteries,  350. 

"Negative  Road,"  The,  %"] ;  in 
Hierotheus,  103  ;  in  Dionysius, 
108;  discussion  of,  1 10-17;  in 
Augustine,  128  ;  in  Erigena, 
135  ;  in  Albertus  Magnus,  144-6  ; 
in  Bonaventura,  146,  in  Eck- 
hart,  160  ;  200,  244,  260,  290-92. 

Neo-Kantians,  346. 

Neoplatonism,  its  connexion  with 
the  mysteries,  4 ;  of  Plotinus, 
91-9;  of  his  successors,  131. 
See  also  PlatonisDi. 

Neschamah,  361. 

Nettleship,  R.  L.,  8,  11,  64,  250, 
3i5>  342- 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  27S. 

Nicholas  of  Basel,  180. 

Nihilism,  in  Hierotheus,  102 ;  in 
Dionysius,  105-6. 

Nirvana,   112. 

Noack,  22,  81,  338. 

Nominalism,  214,  347,  365. 

Nordau,  Max,  343-4. 

Novalis,  298. 

Numenius,  85. 

O 

Old  Testament,  mystical  element  in, 

39-43- 
Origen,    7,    24,    89-91,    357,    359, 

370. 
Orphic  mysteries,  352,  356. 
Ortlieb  of  Strassburg,  140. 
"Over-Soul"  in  Emerson,  321. 
Overton,  on  Law,  278  sq.,  339. 
Ovid,  139,  354. 


Pantheism  :    speculative   Mysticism 
and,    117-22;     of    Amalricians, 
139;    tendency   to,    in    Eckhart, 
152,    155-8;    in    Emerson,    321, 
339.  343- 
Paracelsus,  Theophrastus,  273. 
Pascal,  320. 
Pater,  W.,  369. 
Patrick,  Bp.  .Simon,  287. 
Paul,  St.,  mystical  element  in,  59- 

72. 
Pearson,  K.,  149. 
Pedro  Malon  de  Ghaide,  216. 
Pedro  of  Alcantara,  218. 
Perry,  G.  G.,  2S6. 
Personality,  29-35,   205,   340,   361, 

366-7. 
Pfleiderer,  339,  346-7. 
Philo,  82-5,  254,  354,  369-70. 
Philostratus,  lOl,  266. 
Pico  of  Mirandola,  269. 
Picton,  J.  A.,  32. 
Pindar,  9. 

"  Fist  is  Sophia,'''  353. 
Plato,   2,  18,  19,  55,  76,  77-9,  285, 

3i9>  352. 
Platonism,    22,     77-80 ;    in    Italy, 
213  ;  in  Spain,   2 1 5-7  ;  in  Eng- 
land, 285-96,  303. 
Platonists,  the  Cambridge,  20,  285- 

96,  363. 
Plotinus,    6,    9,    10,    21,     34 ;    his 
philosophy,  91-9  ;   129,  130,  136, 
226,  232,  359. 
Plutarch,  352,  355. 
Porphyry,  15. 

Prayer,  Juliana  on,   204-5  5  Teresa 
on,      220-21  ;     "the     prayer    of 
quiet,"  222. 
Preger,  150  sq. 
Proclus,  6,  34,  105,  no. 
Pseudo-Clementine  Homilies,  63. 
Psychical  research,  265. 
Purgation      or      purification,       10, 

355- 
Pythagoreans,  34,  353. 


Quakers,  72,  259. 

Quietism,  43,    103,    187,  222,  231- 
45.  365- 


378 


INDEX 


R 


Ramanathan,  P.,  112. 
Rationalism,  its  limitations,  20,  21, 

266,  343,  344. 
Reason,    the    logic    of    the    whole 

personality,  1S-21  ;  Platonists  on, 

287-90  ;    Wordsworth    on,    309  ; 

its  office,  331,  341,  360-61.     See 

also  Intellec/tis  Agens. 
Recejac,  19,  250,  340-41. 
Reuchlin,  268,  270. 
Reuss,  53. 

Ribet,  12,  99,  143,  264,  336,  371. 
Richard  of  St.   \'ictor,  17,  28,  1 15, 

140-42,  147. 
Richter,  J-  1'-,  30. 
Ritschl,  214,  346. 
Rohde,  353. 
Rousselot,  168,  215  sq. 
Ruskin,  J.,  252. 
Ruysbroek,  7,  153,  16S-71,  181  sq., 

362-3. 


Sacraments  as  symbols  of  mystical 
union,    253-8  ;  in  the  mysteries, 

353- 
"Scale  of  Perfection,''''  The,  197. 
Scaramelli,  20I,  335,  371. 
Schelling,  96. 
Schiller,  76. 

Scholastic  mystics,  140  sq. 
Schopenhauer,  1 19,  338. 
Schram,  265. 
Science,     Wordsworth     on,     306 ; 

spiritualisation  of,  322-3. 
Scotus,  Duns,  187. 
Scotus,  John.     See  Erigena. 
Scupoli,  178. 
Seneca,  195.  , 

Seth,  A.,  119,  339-40. 
Shakespeare,  28. 
Shelley,  303-4. 

"Signatures,"  doctrine  of,  272. 
Smith,  John,  of  Cambridge,  9,  285- 

Song  of  Solomon,  mystical  inter- 
pretation of,  43,  369-72. 

Spain,  Mysticism  in,  213  sq. 

"  Spark  "  {Fiinklein — Apex  mentis, 
etc.),  7,  93,  155-7. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  98. 


Spenser,  Edmund,  303. 

Spinoza,  121. 

Spirit,  the  Holy,  St.  John  on,  48-9; 
St.  Paul  on,  62-4  ;  two  concep- 
tions of  His  operations,  72  ; 
Victorinus  on,  127. 

Stages,  the  three,  in  the  mystical 
life,  9  sq.  ;  in  Plotinus,  93  ;  in 
Augustine,  130;  in  Ruysbroek, 
168-9 ;  in  Tauler,  186 ;  in 
Wordsworth,  307. 

Staglin,  Elizabeth,  17S. 

Sterngassen,  363. 

Stcickl,  133,  141-2,  1S4-5. 

Stoicism,  121,  195. 

Strabo,  354. 

Suarez,  10. 

"  Substance"  =  the  higher  self,  206. 

Sudaili,  Stephen  bar,  102-4. 

Sufism,  118,  321,  371. 

Suidas,  4. 

Supernaturalism,  in  the  mediaeval 
Catholic  mystics,  1 42-4,  243  ; 
craving  for  miracles,  262-4  !  Law 
on,  283-4. 

Suso,  172-80,  181  sq.,    302. 

Symbols,  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
ideas,  5  ;  symbolism  in  St.  John, 
58-9 ;  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  73  ;  in  Origen,  89 ; 
religious  symbolism  discussed, 
250  sq. 

Sympathies  and  antipathies  in 
nature,  273. 

Synesius,  126. 

'■'■  Synteresis,''  147,  156,  159,282, 
359.  360. 

Syrian  Mysticism,  loi  sq. 


Tatian,  359. 

Tauler,  11,  180  sq. 

Taiiroboliuni,  353. 

Taylor,  Bp.  Jeremy,  17. 

Tennyson,  14,  51,  29S,  320. 

Teresa,  218-23,  Zl^- 

Tertullian,  16,  253,  270. 

Themistius,  361. 

Theologia     Germaiiica,    8,    10,    50, 

181  sq.,  363-5. 
Theophilus,  357. 
Therapeuta;,  82. 
Theurgy,  131,  267  sq. 
Thomas  a  Kempis.     See  Keinpis. 


INDEX 


379 


Thomas  Aquinas.     See  A(]ni7ias. 
Time,  question  as  to  reality  of,  23, 

327-9- 

Transubstantiation,  257. 

Trinity,  the  Neoplatonic,  94-5 ; 
the  Christian,  in  Dionysius,  loS  ; 
in  Victorinus,  127  ;  in  Eckhart, 
150  sq.  ;  in  Ruysbroek,  170;  in 
Suso,  178.  182;  in  Bohme,  279. 

Tuckney,  288,  363. 


U 

Unitive  stage,  the  highest,  10. 
Unity  of  existence,  28. 
Universalism,    in    Origen,    90 ; 
Erigena,  137. 


Valentinian  Gnostics,  82,  370. 
Vatke,  366. 


Vaughan,  Henry,  109. 

Vaughan,  R.  A.,  163,  273,  347-8. 

Victorinus,  125-8. 

Visions,  14-19 ;  St.  Paul's,  63-4 ; 
Neoplatonic,  98,  99 ;  Augustine 
on,  132;  in  Suso,  175;  of  Teresa, 
218  ;  rejected  by  Juan  of  the 
Cross,  226. 


W 

Wallace,  Prof.  W.,  12. 
Weigel,  274-6. 
Westcott,  Bp.,  47,  49. 
Whichcote,  B.,  285-96,  315. 
Will,  in  Eckhart,  161  ;  prominence 

given    to,    in    fifteenth     century 

and  later,  187-8. 
"Wisdom,  the  Eternal,"  in  Suso, 

174  sq. 
Word.     See  Logos. 
Wordsworth,  W.,  305-18. 


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